Infinity Train: A Mirrored Perspective
by Johndoe326
Summary: After Tulip parts ways with her reflection, Mirror Tulip begins an adventure of her own where she encounters old enemies, makes new friends, and becomes her own person with a new name.
1. The Chrome Car

Chapter 1: The Chrome Car

It's been a week since I stopped being Tulip's reflection and she continued on her journey home through the infinite train. I had spent that time trying to open a bank account in the Bank Car, however they said I need some form of identification which I do not have. It wasn't all bad though, I managed to become pen pals with a pencil man named Drew. Although after a week of being in the car I had one thing to say…

"I'm so bored!" I laid my head and arms on one of the reception desks talking to Drew. "I know I was excited when I first got here but there's almost nothing to do here." Drew nodded as I spoke.

"I wanted to get ID for my account but the process is so difficult and weird." I don't know how IDs are obtained back home but i don't think they were this confusing, "I mean how am I supposed to know what pencil number I am?" Drew pointed to a number 2 labeled on his side.

"That might work for you but I'm not a pencil Drew." I began to feel a light tapping on my shoulder. I turned around to see a line of pencil people who looked like they were losing their patience.

"Oh sorry" I had been chatting with Drew for about twenty minutes, "I'll get out of your way, talk to you later Drew." He waved as I awkwardly moved to the back of the car.

"Pardon me, excuse me." The car always seemed busy no matter what time it was. I'm just happy everyone was friendly towards me, they even let me sleep on some chairs at night. They weren't that comfortable though.

'What should I do today?' I thought to myself, 'Maybe I can doodle on registration forms or make paper planes out of some old documents again.'

I felt a rumble from my stomach as I pondered my options. 'Guess I'll go to the hot dog stand again.' For whatever reason this bank had a hot dog stand in it. Kinda odd but not the weirdest thing I've seen on this train.

As I approached the pencil man making the hot dogs, he gave me a wave.

"Hi Pen." Without even asking he had already started making me a hot dog. "Hey Pen why did you set up a hot dog stand in a bank?" He moved his shoulders upwards to indicate he didn't know. "Oh." He finished the hot dog and handed it to me.

"Thanks Pen" He gave me a nod before I walked off. Pen actually doesn't charge people for his food. Kind of a bad sales practice if you ask me, but I'm not complaining. I don't have money anyway.

When I first tried one of Pen's dogs it was the best experience I've ever had, because in the mirror world nothing has flavor. It was literally the first thing I have ever tasted in my life. This time however it was just kinda… meh. Don't get me wrong it was still tasty, it just didn't blow my mind like the first time.

After I finished eating my mind wandered to the train. 'Maybe I should go explore more of this train, it would beat staying here forever. The only problem is I told myself I would follow my own path, and if I travel towards the engine i'd be walking in Tulip's footsteps again. On the other hand…'

'I could go back.'

The idea of going back through the mirrored car always frightened me, I sometimes had nightmares where the mirror police would catch me and finish polishing me down to nothing. I could still imagine when the one cut my hair.

I looked down at my hands, then clenched them. 'I didn't defy my fate just to sit around like some sad… thing!' I walked towards the exit of the Bank Car more determined than ever. 'Tulip helped me because she saw that I'm someone, not just her reflection but an actual person.' I put my hands on the handle. 'So I'm gonna show everyone that I exist!' I sprinted out of the bank and straight through the still open door of the Chrome Car.

I regretted it immediately.

Seeing the inside made the memories there flood back. The chrome walls and shapes in the car filled me with dread, the same dread I felt a week ago.

'On second thought, maybe staying in the Bank Car isn't such a bad idea.' I turned around to see that the door had closed behind me. "No." I tried to turn the handle but it wouldn't budge, "No no no" I tried even harder but it wouldn't turn.

"Stop that sliver!" I heard an echoing voice behind me, I thought it was the end. When i turned around however the two officers from last week where chasing a chrome boy on the other side of the car. They hadn't noticed me yet.

I practically threw myself behind a pillar to hide from them, then I carefully snuck toward the other end of the car. I noticed strands of orange hair on the floor of the mirror side. 'I would've thanked the officer for the haircut if he wasn't trying to kill me.'

When I was nearly there I heard a scream. I had looked in time to see that the boy was caught and the officers were already halfway done using their sander. I froze after seeing what they were doing to him, what they would do to me.

I couldn't look anymore, I had to keep going. If I had been here sooner then maybe I could have done something. However, I knew that if I didn't hurry then I'd meet the same fate.

The screams stopped when I reached the door. I couldn't allow myself to feel sad, I had to get through now. Unfortunately like the door I came through the handle wouldn't move. It was then that I remembered I needed a second person to open the door in the mirror world.

'I have no one.' I was about to collapse with fear when I heard sniffling. A boy around the same age as me was sitting below in the mirror world. He had light brown hair and a black turtleneck.

"Hello?" I called down.

He jumped at the sound of my voice, guess I startled him. "Who… who are-"

"No time," I interrupted, "We need to get out of this car before those two officers come back."

"How?" He asked clearly scared and confused, "My reflection told me if we switched we could open the door together, but those two men chased after him before we could."

'So that was his reflection I saw.' I thought to myself, "I'm sorry, but your reflection isn't coming back." The boy lowered his face into his hands, "We can still get out of here though, you just have to trust me."

The boy looked at me again and wiped a tear off his face, "Ok."

I told him that after we open the door then I might be able to switch with him, then he could pull me out with the mirror that Tulip left with me.

I placed the mirror face down on the ground and stood in front of the door once again. "On three." he nodded while in position.

"One," we both took a step forward.

"Two," We put our hands on the handles.

"Three." We turned the handles in sync, and the door opened.

I could've ran away. I could have left the boy there and saved myself. I won't lie and say it didn't cross my mind, but this kid was alone and afraid. He was just like me when I realized I couldn't leave this car without a mirror. He was just like Tulip when I almost left her.

I stepped where his foot was and we switched worlds. Him in the prime world, and me in the mirror world. I felt a chill as I passed through, this world was colder than the other. I never thought I would come back here, I did not enjoy it.

My appearance also changed when I switched. I was no longer chrome, my hair was now orange and my hoodie was a dark-ish green just like Tulip.

I looked down at the boy who was staring at me, "What?" He quickly looked away embarrassed, "Sorry, it's nothi-"

"It's her, the sliver from before!" The officers had returned "Stop!" They were running towards me in the mirror world.

I turned to the boy, "Quick you gotta pull me out before they kill me." He was surprised at that. "They're gonna what?" I put my hand on the small mirror on the other side. "Hurry, there almost here!" The boy grabbed the mirror and yanked me into the prime world, he actually fell backwards sending us both to the ground,

"Run!" I said as I helped him up and we sprinted into the jelly bean car. I could hear swearing behind me as we ran.

We didn't stop running until we were in the next car over. It was just a huge meadow of all kinds of flowers. There was a path straight to the other door with benches along the sides. When Tulip came through here she barely looked around, she just walked straight to the exit.

I fell to my knees in a patch of small white flowers trying to catch my breath. The boy actually laid on his back, I decided to do the same. I raised my hand above my face, it was chrome again and the small mirror was stuck to my palm. I moved it into my sleeve. After a few minutes of silence the boy spoke up.

"So, you're a reflection?"

"I _was_, a reflection." I didn't like the question but I knew he didn't mean anything by it. "The person I was supposed to reflect saw that I was my own person, and she helped me escape that Chrome Car."

"Who was the person you were reflecting?"

"A girl named Tulip, she has long orange hair, a green hoodie, glasses, and a weird number on her hand."

"You mean like this?" The boy sat up and showed me his right hand. 925

"Whoa…" I was surprised, Tulip's number was only as high as 115. This kid was almost up to a thousand. I wasn't sure what the numbers meant but I didn't think it was good.

"So you're stuck on this train like Tulip?" I asked

He gave me a weird look, "Train?" He looked back at the door we came through and walked out. I followed behind him.

He stood there looking at the barren land and the swirling clouds saying nothing. He must have just shown up in the Chrome Car. I tapped his shoulder "Are you ok?" I asked worried.

"What… what is this place?" He was stunned and confused, but not as afraid as Tulip was.

"I don't know." We stood there for a couple of minutes before he went back inside.

He sat on a bench looking into space, I sat next to him. I wanted to help him, but I knew I couldn't.

"If you travel toward the engine then you might run into Tulip and she can help you get home."

He finally looked at me, "What are you going to do?"

"I guess I'm gonna explore the train, I don't think I can go with Tulip anymore even if I wanted to so I'm going to go on my own adventure."

He looked down at his legs, "Well, would it be ok if I come with you?" I was taken aback.

"Don't you want to go home?"

"There's… nothing for me back there." His voice was low and filled with sadness. I decided not to pry for more.

"Ok, you can come with me."

"Thank you. If i'm gonna be stuck here, then I'm glad it's with a friend."

I smiled at that. I suddenly realized something. "Oh wow, I haven't even asked your name yet."

"My bad," he began, "I should have introduced myself." He extended his arm for a handshake. "I'm Mike"

I took his hand and shook, "I'm Tu… well, I guess I don't have a name yet."

"That's fine, I'm sure you'll figure it out soon."

We began walking to the exit, ready to face whatever the train would throw at us together. Mike suddenly stopped. "Hey, you have something in your hair."

I stopped to check and there was some small white flowers in my hair. I took them in my hands and looked at them.

"Must be from when we were laying in that patch of flowers." I hadn't seen these kind before, "What kind of flowers are these anyway?"

Mike observed them, "I think they're called Calluna Flowers."

"Calluna Flowers?" I've never heard of em.

"Yeah, but they also have another name. Some people call them Heather Flowers I think."

My eyes widened a bit. I looked at Mike, "What are they called?"

"Heather Flowers." He repeated.

"Heather… Huh, I like the sound of that."

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**For people reading this after watching Book 2 of Infinity Train, I wanted to say that this was written before Book 2 was announced so there will be some contradictions here. This version of the train and it's inhabitants will have have different rules. For example, Mirror Tulip doesn't have her own reflection. That being said, most of the rules are relatively the same.**


	2. The Small Businesses Car

Chapter 2: The Small Businesses Car

I was staring out at the land before me. The ground was completely made of stone, there were rocky pillars that towered to the clouded artificial sky. The ground was littered with holes and small canyons that lead to rare ores. I was just standing there... waiting.

"Heather?" I looked to my friend Mike "You coming or what?"

"Sorry Mike, I just find this car really interesting." I wasn't the only one, Tulip also really liked this car. However it wasn't the car itself that we found interesting, it was what was inside of it.

"I don't see why, it's just a bunch of holes and rocks."

"You'll see." I said eager.

Mike rolled his eyes with a smile as we walked between various stone structures. We were about halfway through the car when we could see the door.

"So what _does_ make this car interesting to you anyway?"

"Like I said you'll see, it's a surprise." I wasn't gonna ruin it by telling him.

"You know I'm actually at a disadvantage here, you've been to all these cars up ahead and you don't tell me anything." Despite saying this he wasn't mad, he was just teasing.

"That's because I want to see your reactions, they're funny."

"Hey, I only freaked out when the weird number on my hand changed." A couple days ago his number went down after I helped him up after he tripped on a pipe. It was now at 918.

"Oh yeah, then what happened in the Mouse Hole Car?" I countered

"Whatever, that giant mouse was charging at me and you saw it."

"Anyway, I haven't seen all of the cars yet. We'll both be at a disadvantage… eventually."

Mike laughed a little, "yeah well not soon eno-" Suddenly the ground started to shake.

"What is that?" Mike asked nervously.

Soon the shaking became more aggressive and Mike dove to the ground with his eyes closed and his arms over his head.

The shaking stopped. Mike opened his eyes to see that nothing had happened. I was laughing like a crazy person after seeing Mike hit the deck.

"What the heck was that?"

I couldn't stop laughing.

"Heather, stop laughing already." Mike began to shake me lightly by the shoulders until I stopped.

"Ok ok, I'm done I'm done." he let go of me as I calmed myself down.

"Alright so why was the ground shaking like that Heather?"

"Look for yourself" I pointed to a cluster of holes to the side of us. Mike looked to see around ten large lizards made completely of rock.

"What the…" Mike said in confusion.

"Welcome to the Rock Lizard Car." I announced. "That shaking was those lizards digging underground."

"Huh that is pretty cool," The lizards suddenly stopped and looked towards us. "Uh Heather, they're not gonna try to attack us are they?"

"Don't worry Tulip was in here for about half an hour and they didn't hurt her. These guys only want one thing and that is to eat ore."

Mike looked back at me. "Wait you mean like metal?" He seemed even more worried than before.

"Yeah, or any other…" I stopped when I saw that the lizards weren't looking at the both of us, they were only looking at me. It was then I realized what Mike was worried about. I'm completely chrome. To the rock lizards, I look like I'm made of metal.

"Oh cra-" I started to say before Mike grabbed my hand.

"Run!" Mike and I sprinted for the exit as six of the lizards chased us. We were jumping over holes avoiding pillars and dodging the occasional bite from a lizard from the side.

We were nearly there when a lizard ahead of us went for a bite. Luckily it missed and just ripped a piece from my hoodie. Three of the lizards chasing us started to fight for the piece of chrome fabric from the first one. The rest of the lizards were inches away before we burst through the door and slammed it shut.

We took a moment for a breather.

"Heather are you ok?" Mike asked worried.

"I'm fine, they only got my hoodie."

"You sure?" He wasn't convinced, "They didn't hurt you at all?"

"Mike I'm ok, really."

He seemed to calm down "ok, good."

I smiled a bit before I realized we were still holding hands. Mike seemed to notice too because he quickly let go as his face began to turn red. You probably wouldn't be able to tell but my cheeks turned a different shade of chrome as I looked away.

"Anyway time for the next car." I quickly said as I began to open the door.

"Wait, is this one gonna try to kill us too?"

"Don't worry, this one is safe."

"That's what you said about the Rock Lizard Car."

"This one doesn't have anything that eats metal," I smirked "Or Turtlenecks."

Mike seemed to calm down after my Jab at his fashion.

"Hey it's better than a torn hoodie." He teased.

I looked down to see the huge hole in the front of my hoodie revealing my shirt. The hole reached from the zipper straight through the bottom trim. Luckily I could replace it in the next car.

I started to turn the handle. Mike visibly tensed as I did, but I knew it wouldn't last long.

Through the open door we saw a street with various stores and businesses next to the sidewalks. There were occasional parked cars in front of some stores but none were diving down the road. The sky was a faded aqua and the exit door could be seen at the end of the street.

Mike didn't seem worried anymore, "What is this place?"

"Tulip called this one the Small Businesses Car, kinda boring name but it works."

"So what's there to do here?"

"Tulip didn't spend much time here but I'm sure we can find something fun in here"

"Oh, like that mattress store over there?" Mike Joked.

"Very funny, but would it be cool if I replace my hoodie first?"

"Sure I don't mind."

"Thanks." He smiled as we went to look for a clothes store.

We walked by many stores like Crafts R Us, Barber Prince, we even passed a movie and game rental store called Cube Cluster. Tulip actually spent most of her time in this car looking at video games there.

We were near the end of the car when Mike spotted something next to a mirror shop. "How about there?" He pointed towards a building with a black sign labeled Infinity Tailor. The logo was an infinity symbol drawn around the name. There were large windows in the front with mannequins wearing various clothing in them.

"I hope they sell hoodies."

We walked in to see a room with hardwood floors and dark green walls. There were shelves with a large variety of clothing from plain t shirts to full tuxedos. No one was at the front desk, there was only a silver bell labeled "Gimme a ring."

Confused I rang the bell. A minute went by, then a small green man suddenly appeared from behind the desk startling both of us.

"Welcome welcome my name is Stan, how may I help you today? This man had thinning black hair, pointed ears, and was wearing a reddish brown suit.

"Uh… yeah, I wanted to replace my hoodie?"

Stan looked at my ruined jacket, "Nasty hole there, how did that happen?"

"We ran into some stone lizards in the next car over."

"Ah, those things have a hunger for metal. Not a great place for someone like yourself."

"I'm not actually metal, I was a reflection."

Stan's eyes went wide, "Wait, you're from the mirror world?"

He inched a bit closer making us uncomfortable.

"Um, yes?" I said

Stan nodded then backed up a bit which made me feel better. He started to think for a minute. "Tell you what not only am I gonna make you a new hoodie, I'm gonna make you a whole new outfit for a simple price."

'What would that be?" Mike said still uneasy.

"I want the clothes you're replacing."

Both Mike and I were confused.

"Wait, you want my clothes?" That was the last thing I expected, "Why?"

"Kid, do you have any idea how valuable stuff from the mirror world is?"

I had never thought of that. I might have been the only reflection to escape from the Chrome Car.

"I suppose pretty rare."

"Extremely rare. So what do you say, I make you a new outfit and all you have to do is give me the clothes you're getting rid of anyway?" He held out his hand.

I spent a minute to think. 'I was gonna replace my hoodie but I didn't want to get rid of it, in a way these clothes are a part of me. Although these are also Tulip's clothes, besides my hair I'm still pretty much just a copy of her. I guess I should get my own outfit.'

I shook Stan's hand "Deal."

"Excellent," He looked pleased. "However, if I'm gonna make you a full outfit I'm gonna need half payment."

"Oh… ok." I took off my torn hoodie and went to place it on the counter but it got stuck to my hand. "Do you have a mirror?" I asked embarrassed.

Stan pulled out a hand mirror and put it down. I rested my hoodie on it and I could let go. The mirror that Tulip gave me was visibly resting on my wrist so I put it in my pants pocket.

"I don't think that's half, toss the boots up here too."

"I'm not gonna walk around in my socks!"

"Here, you can borrow these." He handed me a pair of black flip flops.

I grumbled a bit but I accepted the sandals and put my boots with the hoodie.

"Alright," Stan put the chrome clothes under the counter and handed me a card. "Here when the symbol of my shop appears on this card, your clothes are ready."

"How long is this gonna take?" Mike asked.

"A couple hours."

Mike and I left the store and started to walk down the sidewalk, "I do not like that guy," said Mike.

"Me neither, but I don't think there's any other clothing stores here." I said.

"Unfortunately."

"Anyway I saw a small bowling alley on the way here, you wanna try a game while we wait? I'll pay." Back in the Flower Car we found a bush that grows money. If Tulip looked around more, she probably would've noticed it. We took about four pockets full.

"Have you ever bowled before?"

"Well, Tulip's parents brought her to a bowling alley once… when she was seven."

Mike laughed. "Alright sure, let's bowl."

Some time later I lost to Mike 81 to 53. Mike clearly had more experience than I did with bowling.

Afterwards we went to a place called the Bounce House, which was a big room with a floor made of trampolines. They actually gave us special socks to bounce in, which we got to keep.

Finally we went to a pizza place called Pizza Table, I got pepperoni and Mike got pineapple. After we ate we were walking past a laundromat.

"Man, you destroyed your pizza Heather." Said Mike.

"Hey, it was the first time I've ever tried a pizza, heck I've only tasted like four things since getting to the prime world."

"Ha, that's fair."

Mike suddenly noticed something was lighting up in my pocket. "Hey Heather your pocket is glowing."

I looked down and it was. I took out the card Stan gave me and it had a green infinity symbol glowing on it. "Guess Stan is done." We made our way back to the Infinity Tailor.

Stan was sitting at the front desk when we walked in. "Ah there you are," He grabbed a stack of clothes from behind him and put it on the counter. He was now wearing a chrome tie.

"Here are your clothes, you can change in the back" He motioned to three small rooms below a sign labeled 'changing rooms'. As I walked by Stan handed me a mirror, "Put your old clothes on this." I traded his mirror for his stupid flip flops.

"I'm gonna browse while you change." said Mike

"Ok." I walked into a changing room with my new clothes. Before I changed I took Tulip's mirror out of my pocket and put it on my arm so I didn't forget it.

I exited the small room later wearing my new outfit while holding my old chrome one. I was wearing a purple hoodie, black shirt, navy blue jeans, and brown boots. Everything was trimmed chrome and the shirt had an Infinity symbol on it made of the same material.

I walked up to Mike who was trying to buy something from Stan.

"A hundred bucks for a backpack!?"

"This is a premium backpack kid, some of my best work in fact." It was a black backpack with two zippers on the top, and a pouch on the front with the same Infinity symbol on it.

"That's still a lot for a freakin backpack."

"Well if you don't want it, then I'll just sell it to someone else."

Mike gave Stan an angry look. "Fine take your money." Mike handed him a hundred.

He put on his new bag then looked at me. "Oh wow, I thought it would be weird not seeing you completely chrome but you look great."

"Thanks Mike." I smiled as I handed Stan my old clothes.

"I think I've out done myself," Stan looked proud of his work. "If you'll notice I've sewn some of your old clothes into the new stuff, I figured you'd want to keep a part of em with you." I didn't realize it but he was right, the trimming was straight from the hoodie and boots.

"How'd you do that?" There wasn't a mirror connected anywhere on the clothes.

"Simple I've sewn some of these little reflective beads into the fabric so you don't need a mirror to take them off. In fact you probably don't even need that little mirror you carry around anymore."

My mind took a moment to process that. I took Tulip's mirror out of my sleeve and looked at it. I Then walked to a shelf and slowly placed it down. There it was sitting on the shelf, two inches away from me. This mirror was the only thing that allowed me to exist in this world, and now… I didn't need it anymore. I looked at the mirror once more then I put it in my pocket.

I turned to Stan "Thank you."

"No, thank you kid, I got some rare material and all I had to do was make you an outfit and sell your boyfriend a backpack.

Mike and I blushed. "Oh no, we're not-" we both started to say.

"I don't care. So unless you want anything else I will bid you adieu."

We were about to leave when Stan spoke up again, "I'd be careful who you tell where your from." He warned. "Stuff from the mirror world is valuable yes, but it's also extremely illegal here."

Mike and I gave each other a look, then I looked back at Stan, "We'll keep that in mind."

As we left the Infinity Tailor, I was observing the sleeves of my new hoodie. "You know, I wish I could see what I look like right now."

Mike thought for a moment, then had an idea. "Here let me try something." He pulled a cell phone from his pocket then used it to take a photo of me. After a moment, he looked excited. "Yes, it worked." Mike then showed me the picture.

On the screen was a silver girl with short hair, wearing a chrome trimmed purple hoodie. Before if I was shown a picture of myself I would have seen a copy of Tulip, but after the experiences I've had with Mike and on my own I now see a girl with her own likes and desires. Not a copy, but an individual. Seeing that picture made me feel happy.

"Thank you Mike, I really needed that." He smiled

"Glad I could help." We looked at each other for a moment until I noticed a glow on Mike's right hand.

"Mike your hand!" He lifted his right hand and his number was cycling, then suddenly stopped. 851.

He spent a minute looking at his palm. "What does this number mean?" he said more to himself than me.

"I wish I knew."

* * *

'That mirror girl was the easiest scam of my life.' It was now closing time and I was sitting behind my counter cutting through the mirrored gold that lay in front of me. 'If I sell this right then I could make a few million. A few million just for a custom outfit and a cheap backpack.' Suddenly I heard a loud banging coming from the entrance.

"We're closed, get lost!" I was not willing to deal with customers after hours.

A stern voice came through the door, "Open up we know the sliver was here."

'Sliver? Oh crap the flecs!' I frantically started to hide the chrome clothes under the counter, "Just a minute sir, I'm just cleaning up." Without warning the door flew open. A man with chrome armor and fedora had kicked the door nearly off its hinges. I threw my hands up in surrender and the man walked up to me and picked me up by the collar.

"Where is the sliver." He had a white mask and gloves.

"I don't know I swear, she had me make her some clothes then she traveled down the train."

He looked at the chrome fabrics that I couldn't hide in time and pulled me closer. "Where did you obtain these?"

"They're spray painted." I don't lie well under pressure. He took a look at my tie then practically through me to the ground. As I was about to get up he cuffed my hands behind my back.

"Stanley Pansquire, you are under arrest for being in possession of illegal contraband and aiding and abetting a sliver."

"No no, I swear its paint, its paint!" I pleaded but he wasn't fooled.

The officer talked into a chrome walkie talkie, "Agent Sieve prepare the van." He then started to drag me out of my store.

"Please no, I was holding them for a friend."

He took me into the mirror shop next door where he forced himself through a mirror with an arm still gripping the handcuffs on the other side.

"No stop, please!"

He dragged me through into the mirror world.


	3. The School Car

Chapter 3: The School Car

"Man, that car was weird." Mike said

We were exiting a car with a huge forest made completely of cubes.

"At least it was peaceful this time."

"This time?"

"When Tulip came through here those monsters were harder to ignore. Stephen only had a dirt hut for her to sleep in."

That got Mike surprised. "The guy with the mansion?"

"Yeah, he's done well for himself in this last month."

"I'll say."

"He actually gave me this shovel." I pulled a flat pixely metal shovel from my jacket pocket. "I have no idea how it fits in my pockets though."

"You think that's weird?" Mike grabbed a pixelated metal bucket of water from his bag, "This bucket doesn't spill at all." He then started to spin it to prove his point.

"How are you supposed to get the water out then?"

"Stephen said I had to tap the bucket on a surface to empty it."

"You're right, that is weirder."

Mike put his bucket away as he looked to the door ahead. "So what's waiting for us in the next car?"

"Nothing crazy, kinda boring actually."

"What do you mean?"

"Well it's... here let me show you." I opened the door of the car.

Inside was a long hallway with lockers on the walls and doors leading to other rooms.

Mike was silent.

"See what I mean?" I said motioning to the halls of a school. "School is boring on its own but there is literally no one here. What do you think?"

He was still quiet. "Mike?" I turned to see him staring at the halls around him.

I started to shake his shoulder, "Mike."

"Huh?" He snapped out of it. "Oh sorry Heather, what were you saying?"

"Mike, are you ok?" I could tell there was something was wrong.

"It's nothing, it's just this hallway looks like it's from my school back home."

I knew home was a tough subject for him. I've asked him before but he never wanted to say.

"How bout we go to the next car, it's definitely better than this one."

"Alright."

The hallway was just as empty as I remember, it was poorly lit which made it harder to see ahead and the pure silence made it so only our footsteps and our breathing could be heard. This car was very creepy to say the least. We made our way quickly through the halls until we heard a voice behind us. "Hello?"

We turned to see an older woman wearing a black suit jacket, grey skirt and black heels exiting one of the classrooms. When Tulip came through here this place seemed abandoned. I guess it wasn't.

"Who are you?"

"I'm a teacher at this school, my name is Miss Mendacium but you may call me Miss M. Are you two new here?"

"Uh yeah, but we were just leav-"

"Oh then would you like to try one of our free classes."

Mike and I looked kinda confused, "Free classes?"

"Yes, new potential students are given one free class of their choosing to see if they'd like to enroll."

Honestly I was kinda interested in her offer but I had a bad feeling about this lady.

"Well," I spoke up again. "We're just passing through,"

"Actually Heather, you can pick one if you want, I kinda want to sit down anyway." Mike looked tired.

I looked back at Mike. "Are you s-"

"Excellent," Miss M smiled, "Allow me to show you what we have to offer."

We followed Miss M as she toured us through the halls and explained the different classes we were passing. There was a variety of classes. Math, auto mechanics, history, science , even a class on space and time. As we walked Mike seemed to have trouble keeping up so we stopped at the closest room.

It was a ceramics class with six extremely dusty square tables that had eight chairs each. There were posters littered throughout the classroom showing different forms of art, colors, textures, and rules.

Mike and I were sitting at a table together with our own lumps of clay Miss M gave us to work with. Mike looked worse than before, I asked if he was ok but he said he was just tired.

I noticed early on that Miss M seemed to be the only person there. "Excuse me Miss M, are you the only teacher at this school?"

"Of course not, I just happen to be the ceramics teacher." She said with a smile.

"Riiiight," I leaned closer to Mike. "I'm not sure if we can trust this lady."

Suddenly Mike collapsed face first into his clay. "Mike!"

Miss M walked over and held Mike's head up. He fell asleep.

"Oh dear." She looked to me. "You stay here, I'll take your friend to the nurse's office so he can rest."

I stood from my chair, "I'm going to stay with Mike." I wasn't gonna leave Mike alone with this random lady.

She looked to me, her smile disappeared from her face replaced with a stern look. "You. Stay. Here."

From the moment we met her, Miss M was only smiles and kindness, Seeing her change so quickly was unsettling. I was about to talk back but something about her words filled me with dread and I sat back in my seat.

"Good," her smile returned, "I will be back shortly."

Miss M left the room and I was left only in the classroom. I decided to snoop around. I looked behind her desk to find that there were papers, pens, and a rotten apple. The papers were writing assignments to be given students. Just like the tables, everything was covered in layers of dust.

I opened a small drawer and saw a tiny leather bound journal. There was ink spilled on most of the pages but I was able to find one entry.

'I think I'm gonna ask the conductor to transfer me to another train car. I know I say that a lot, but this job is getting way too creepy for me. Children keep going missing during the day and when we ask the other kids they say they don't know anything about it. The weird part is that the only ones that go missing are from the science class. Miss Mendacium says she has no clue what's happening to her students but I think she's involved somehow. She's been acting very differently since the incident, I mean she used to be super nice but now she chews you out just for looking at her weird. All I know is, I'm getting the hell outta here.'

'That does not sound good.' I thought. 'Maybe I should take a look in Miss M's class. I might get some more answers.' I began to sneak back through the halls we came from until I saw the science room.

As I walked inside I saw individual desks scattered unevenly near the center of the class and six black tables connected to the walls. Each table had a sink and two nozzles for gasses, but only one table had anything on it. There were broken beakers and what looked to be research papers. I picked up some of the papers and one had a picture the cockroach dog creatures Tulip faced before. I nearly rested my hand in some brown goo as I put the papers back down.

I walked to the front of the class and noticed a door behind the teacher's desk. When I went for the handle I hesitated, I wasn't sure what I'd find and a part of me didn't want to know but I hadn't come this far just to back out. As I opened the door I could hear a squeaking coming from the hinge.

I was not prepared for what I saw on the other side. Inside were piles of bones, skulls, and clothes lying on the floor of a closet. I was paralyzed with fear and shock, I couldn't process what I was looking at.

I stood there just staring until I noticed a notebook sitting by itself. I grabbed it then nearly slammed the door closed. I looked down at the notebook. Only the front had any writing in it.

'Miss M is really a big monster

I saw her do something to Sally

she made her sleep then took her away

Im hiding in the cabnet so she

cant find me. im getting reelly tired

so im gonna go to sleep'

After reading the note I was more worried than before, 'What does that mean? She makes kids tired then…" Suddenly I remembered that Mike has been feeling more and more tired since the moment we got here, 'I need to get to Mike, now.'

* * *

I woke up in a small room with medical tools on counters across from me. I was lying in an uncomfortable white bed with two curtains to the sides of me. I felt exhausted. "Hello?" I said weakly.

"Oh good, you're awake." Miss M walked over after hearing me.

"Where am I?"

"Why you're in the nurse's office dear, you fell asleep in ceramics so I brought you here."

I then remembered sitting next to Heather as I fell into my clay. I felt my hair and there were clumps still there. 'I must have looked so stupid to Heather.' I thought to myself.

My throat felt dry. "Miss M, could I have a glass of water?"

"Of course you can my dear." I'm glad she wasn't the kind of teacher to make you say 'May I' all the time. She actually reminded me of history teacher, she was very kind.

Miss M went to a sink and carefully filled a paper cup with water. As she handed it to me, I had accidentally dropped the cup on the floor making water spill all over. Some of the water got on Miss M's ankle and it started to make a sizzling sound. She suddenly looked in pain, then that pain turned to anger.

"Agh! You little bastard!" I was taken aback, she was so nice just a second ago.

"Uh I mean... accidents happen dear." Miss M calmed herself. "Here, let me get a mop."

'Note to self don't make Miss M mad.' She now reminded me of my math teacher in elementary school who had a bad temper.

As she left, I felt myself drift into sleep again.

* * *

When Miss M showed Me and Mike around, I managed to spot the nurse's office. So I knew exactly where to go. I was nearly there when Miss M stormed out of the nurse's office looking very angry. She almost saw me before I dove through a doorway to hide. As she walked away I noticed she had a burn near her ankle.

When the coast was clear I bolted into the nurse's office determined to save my friend. The room had a front desk with beds on the side walls with curtains between each. I saw a pair of legs on one of the farther beds. I walked up to see Mike, his face was very pale and thin.

"Mike!" I started to shake him scared that he wouldn't wake up.

"Huh?" He started to open his eyes and looked at me, "Heather?"

"Oh thank god, Mike we have to get out of here now."

"What?" He tried to sit up, "What do you-"

"No time," I cut him off. "We have to go before Miss M comes back."

Mike's eyes widened, then he gave me a nod. "Ok, I trust you Heather."

He tried to get up but he couldn't, he was still extremely tired. I helped him off the bed then put his arm over my shoulder to help him walk. If this wasn't so serious I might have freaked out over Mike's arm being around me, but I was too focused to let anything get in the way. We walked in silence to avoid Miss M hearing us. We could see the door when Mike spoke up.

"What is going on in this school?"

"I think Miss M killed everyone here."

"What!?" Mike was clearly surprised.

"Yeah, I found some notes and I think she got turned into a monster after an accident in the science class."

"I don't get it, why would she want to kill them?"

"I'm not-"

"To eat their life forces obviously." At the end of the hall Miss M came out of one of the classrooms.

"I use my new powers to suck the very life from people's bodies to survive." She pointed to me, "However it doesn't work on you for some reason. So I'm just going to have to kill you then eat your friend."

I rested Mike by some lockers and pulled out my shovel to face Miss M, "Over my dead body."

"That's the idea deary." Miss M began to change, she started to grow slightly as her limbs got longer and sharper. Her skin darkened into a coal color and her hair became thicker and started to act as tendrils. Her eyes began to glow with a menacing red and her smile was now filled with sharpened teeth. I was filled with fear seeing her in this form, but I wasn't gonna let her get Mike as long as I could do something about it.

We stood there for a moment, waiting for each other to make the first move. Suddenly Miss M charged towards me. I managed to roll away just in time. When I got up I slammed my shovel into her leg but it didn't do much, she just laughed as she smacked me towards the car door. Mike looked at me worried as he strained to get up.

Miss M turned and picked Mike up and began to suck out his life energy similarly to how the cockroach dogs did. As I got up to stop her I heard sizzling.

There was now a wall of square water where they were standing. Mike must have emptied his bucket on Miss M. Water flowed onto the floor and Mike washed up close to the door, while Miss M looked to be burning and screaming through the halls behind.

I ran up to Mike, his face was sunken and his body was cold but he was still breathing. I still had time. I carried Mike in my arms and burst through the door. I'm not that strong so I am happy Mike doesn't weigh a lot. I brought him into the next car before collapsing.

We laid there for a moment before I got back up to check on Mike. His breathing was calm and the color in his face was returning. He was going to be ok. I was relieved. The car we were in was the bed car. The land was made completely of pillows and bedding, the perfect place to rest. I laid back down and allowed myself to drift into sleep.

I woke up some time later feeling rested. I noticed that Mike was already awake and sitting up looking at our comfy surroundings.

"Mike?"

He turned his head, "Oh hey Heather, did you have a good rest?"

"Uh... yeah, but Mike are you ok?"

"I feel great actually, I think just being in the same car as that teacher was draining me, but now I feel a lot better."

I was relieved, but then I started to wonder, "why do you think she couldn't drain me?"

"Beats me," Mike began to wonder too, "Maybe her power only works on people from the prime world."

"Maybe."

"Hey Heather I was just curious but…" I looked at Mike waiting for him to continue. "Why did you come back for me?"

I was caught off guard. "What?"

"I mean you found out that Miss M was dangerous but you came back to rescue me anyway. Most people would just save themselves. So, why would you risk your own life for me?"

I was stunned, He talked as if I should have left him. I think he might have left himself too.

I walked up to Mike and put a hand on his shoulder, "Mike, you are an awesome person, you are super kind and funny, and you are probably one of the few who would accept me as a person. I would never leave you on this train. We're in this together."

Mike smiled brightly. "Thank you Heather." Mike's number began to change again. We looked at his hand until the new number was shown. 746.

He sat there for a moment staring at his number, then he smiled. Mike stood up and held out a hand offering to help me up. "Guess we should get moving, huh?"

I grabbed his hand then suddenly pulled him back down. We sat on the soft ground laughing. "Heather what are you doing?" Mike said through his laughs.

We settled down after a while, "How about we just rest for a bit, I mean judging from that waterfall over there," I said pointing to the water Mike put down in the other car. "We shouldn't have to worry about that crazy teacher anymore."

"Yeah, that sounds good."


	4. The Arcade Car

Chapter 4: The Arcade Car

Above the barren land in the swirling clouds, a beam of yellow light was shining towards the front of the train. Heather told me that Tulip saw this before, that a person disappeared in the light, then it shot into the ground. Hearing this made me worried at first, but this beam had been there for about an hour. According to Heather, the one Tulip saw lasted for only a minute. When I think this train can't get any weirder, I'm proven wrong every time. I looked at my hand. Still 746. 'What is this train, what's the point?'

I was brought out of my thoughts when Heather came out of the previous car, randomly holding a stack of newspapers. I found this pretty funny, but Heather looked annoyed.

"Where did those come from?" I said holding back my laughter.

"Karen decided to 'thank' us with some of her newspapers." Before we left we helped a wooden lady named Karen with her newspaper business.

I couldn't hold it anymore, I started laughing. Heather didn't find it amusing though. She threw the papers to the side, letting them fly behind the train.

"Let's just move on."

"Oh come on, it's not that bad." I said trying to cheer her up.

"I just don't like working for free, I mean she even said before we started that she'll give us something 'valuable' for our work."

"She must love news then."

Heather sighed, "It's whatever, let's just see what car is next ok?"

"Ok." I figured I should stop joking and just give Heather a minute to cool off.

Heather turned the handle and we were introduced to a dense forest with a dirt path leading further in. It was very peaceful with the sounds of birds and small animals surrounding us. As we walked in I noticed that Heather's annoyance suddenly turned into excitement.

"Oh I forgot about this."

"Forgot about what?"

"Trust me Mike, you'll be excited too." She grabbed my arm and guided me through the 'Forest Trail Car' as heather called it, practically running past it. I tried to question her but she was too exhilarated to answer. We made it through the car within a couple minutes and were now standing in front of the entrance to the next car.

"Heather what's got you so excited?"

"Near the beginning of Tulip's time here she managed to skip two whole cars riding in a water person chasing after a cat that kidnapped one-one."

"I don't know what's weirder, that sentence itself, or the fact that I immediately knew it was true." Heather told me about Tulips friends one-one and Atticus before, so I didn't question it.

"Mike you don't get it, we're about to go through two cars I've never seen before."

My eyes widened. Like Heather, I was now excited. "What are we waiting for then?"

She grinned, then we practically threw the door open, ready to be taken into an amazing new world.

Our excitement quickly turned into confusion because inside the car was a white room with nothing in it but the sounds of farts in it. Without even being inside, it already smelled horrible.

A few moments later we burst through the other side of the car and quickly closed the door behind us. We were gasping for air after holding our breath through the 'Fart Car'.

"Ugh, That was gross!" Heather exclaimed. "Why does that exist?"

"I don't know but I never want to go through there again."

"Hopefully we won't have to."

We took a break before moving on when we started to hear a rumble coming from the front of the train. Not soon after a train car zoomed above our heads towards the end, nearly making me fall over from the vibrations.

"The train cars can move!" I asked shocked as I had never seen this before.

"Yeah, guess I should've mentioned that."

I noticed that the beam of light was now being directed towards the back of the train, it must have been connected to that car that went by.

After a few minutes we were ready to see the next car.

"Let's hope it's better than that one." I said while pointing behind us.

Heather nodded then went to open the door.

When we saw inside we knew it was already infinitely better than the Fart Car. There were rows upon rows of arcade cabinets as far as the eye can see. Each one was a different game, there were games like Pan-Mac, Ront, Super Mayo Bros, and so many more. There were also crain games and skee ball machines. The walls were black and the floor was a space themed carpet.

Heather and I were staring in amazement.

"Oh my god, this is so ironic." Heather said still in awe.

"What do you mean?"

"Well Tulip completely skipped this car, and it's one of the few she would have loved."

"Bet it would've been worth skipping the Fart Car though."

Heather laughed at that, "Ha, she would disagree with you there."

* * *

After entering the newly dubbed Arcade Car, Mike and I stuck together trying out many different games. One good thing about mirroring Tulip my whole life is that I have all her experience playing video games, which means I kicked Mike's butt. He's pretty good but there wasn't a game he could beat me at. Well, except maybe skee ball.

To be completely honest I thought I would hate video games simply because they're something Tulip liked, but I realized that I love them just as much as her. I guess it just goes to show that I might not be her, but I can still enjoy some of the things she does.

'Hmm, maybe I should actually try onions sometime.' I thought.

We played for a few minutes until I came across a game with very sticky controls.

"Oh gross!" I said loudly.

"What's wrong?" As Mike looked up he got a game over. "Ah man."

"Someone spilled some soda or something on this game, I'm gonna wash my hands."

"Alright, I'll be out here." He put another quarter in the game he lost.

I smiled at him before I headed to the bathroom. Because I was only cleaning off my hands, I left the door open to avoid touching the now sticky handle.

It was a single bathroom with one toilet, sink, and a mirror. I turned on the faucet and placed my hands under with soap and began to wash. I rinsed my hands and turned off the sink. Before I could go to dry my hands off, another hand thrust through the mirror in front of me and grabbed my arm.

Before I knew it, I was pulled into the mirror world. The trim on my hoodie turned green, my hair was orange, and my skin turned into a lightish tan. I looked up to see that I was now face to face with one of the mirror officers from before. He pulled a walkie talkie out of his pocket and spoke into it.

"Agent Mace I have the sliver in custody." It took me a moment to comprehend what was happening and when I did, I was filled with immediate panic. I tried to escape but the agent grabbed my other arm and began to pull me into the mirror arcade, "Sorry, but your coming with me."

I struggled but he had a strong hold on me. I was afraid, I thought I was free but it would come to an end if I couldn't get away. I struggled again but it wasn't working. He was dragging me past the arcade games when I noticed one playing by itself. It was the one Mike was playing before I left to wash my hands.

"Just make this easy for yourself and stop resisting."

I wouldn't stop. If it meant shadowing someone again I would never stop fighting. If I stopped then I wouldn't be my own person, I wouldn't get to live my own life, and I would never see Mike again.

I struggled once more, except this time the train car began to shake again. With the rumbling throwing the agent off his balance and my hands still being wet from the sink, I managed to slip out of his grip. I then sprinted to the bathroom as fast as I could.

"No, get back here!"

I ran through the open door and stood in front of the mirror.

"Mike!" I placed my hands on the mirror. "Mike help, I'm stuck in the-" As I tried to pound on the mirror my hand punched straight through into the prime world. I looked at it confused but I was soon brought back to my senses when I heard the mirror agent approaching. I dove through the mirror and rolled onto my knees.

The agent had just entered the mirror bathroom when I stood up and smashed the mirror with my shovel, leaving him in the mirror world and me in the prime world.

"Damn it, no!" Still filled with fear I ran out of the bathroom and bumped straight into Mike and we both fell.

"Whoa, Heather what happened? I thought I heard you yelling my name."

I quickly stood back up. "Oh Mike, listen we need to go right now." I said as I helped him up.

"What? Why, what's going on?"

"Trust me, please." I grabbed his arm again and hurried toward the exit. Mike didn't try to stop me, but I could tell without even looking at him that he'd want an explanation.

Soon Mike and I were standing on the sands of the Beach Car. We were silent for just a moment.

"Heather what happened after you left?" He looked concerned. I didn't want to worry him more, but I didn't want to lie to him either.

"Do you remember those officers in the Chrome Car?"

"Yeah, why?"

"After I went to wash my hands, one of them caught me by surprise and pulled me into the mirror world."

"What!?" Now Mike was definitely worried now. "What happened, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine." I said reassuring him. "After he caught me, he was dragging me through the mirror arcade until I managed to get away from him when the car shook. I went back to the bathroom and managed to cross back into the prime world before smashing the mirror behind me."

"Wait." Mike's expression grew into one of confusion. "How did you get through the mirror without one on the other side?"

"I'm not sure," With no mirrors in sight I felt safer contemplating on what happened. "I went to knock on the mirror trying to get your attention when my arm just slipped through."

Mike put a hand to his chin then smiled. "Well, however it happened, I'm just happy your ok."

A big grin grew on my face. "Thanks Mike."

Suddenly the train came to a stop, Mike and I decided to investigate.

We left the Beach Car and noticed the beam of light from earlier was at the front of the train again. Soon it disappeared back into the clouds then struck the ground like lightning causing a shockwave. I'm not sure how to explain it, but I felt like it had something to do with Tulip. Moments later the train started to move again.

I had already told Mike this would happen, but he still seemed shocked. I can't really blame him though, being told about something and seeing it for yourself are two completely different things. He was left questioning what had just happened, while I was left thinking of Tulip and all she's done for me.

I pulled the mirror she gave me out of my pocket and looked at it. This little mirror gave me my escape and my freedom, it meant a lot to me. It was then I made a decision.

"Mike?"

"Yeah Heather?"

I handed him the small mirror, "I want you to hold onto this."

He looked at it confused. "Your mirror, why do you want me to have it?"

"It's because… you are the only person I trust right now Mike," I closed his hand around the mirror, "If one day I end up stuck in the mirror world somehow, I'd like you to be the one to pull me out. Will you hold onto it... for me?"

He looked back up to me and smiled, "Of course."

* * *

After failing to catch that sliver girl, I found myself next to our van explaining what happened to my partner, and he was furious.

"The hell do you mean the sliver got away again!" We were in a seemingly endless land with nothing in it except a reflective flat ground and sky, and silver doors. Agent Mace was pinning me to the van by my collar.

"How did it even escape, you said you pulled it back into the mirror world."

"I did, but when she got away from me, she went through the mirror I pulled her from, right back into the prime world."

Mace's anger quickly turned into confusion.

"Wait, are you saying it could go into the prime world, without the necessary equipment?"

"Um, yeah."

Mace put me down, then he stood there for a moment with his head down thinking. He looked back at me.

"Sieve, we need to take out that sliver asap."

"What, why?"

"If what you're saying is true then that sliver has been in the prime world long enough to become apart of it, as well as the mirror world. Allowing it to switch freely between them."

In training we were never told what could happen if a sliver ever escaped into the prime world due to the fact it has never happened before, so theories grew among the trainees. The most popular theory was if a sliver was in the prime world long enough, it would start to belong there. Maybe even one day, be considered human.

"I thought that was only a myth!"

"Well now it's a fact, so we need to move, now." Mace said as he climbed into the driver's seat of the van.

"What about the prisoners?" I pointed to the back.

"We take them with us."

I took another look at the back then got into the passenger's side. We drove for a few minutes before Mace spoke up again.

"Agent Sieve, If we can't retrieve the sliver, you know what we have to do."

The sander. I hated using it on people. I know slivers are not actually real, but it always felt wrong. However, I knew we had to keep the balance in check.

"Of course."

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**I've decided to put in some last minute notes to say that I've put a lot of thought into this chapter, mostly regarding the timing between Chapter 4 and the final episode in the show in order to connect them further. Let me know if you figure out what I mean by that. Here's a hint, I made Mike's number 746 for a reason. I hope you're all enjoying the story so far.**


	5. The Grid Car

Chapter 5: The Grid Car

As we traveled through the train Mike and I were now in a car covered completely with brown hair. There was less hair near the exits and the center of the car, but it towered to the ceiling near the walls. We had to tread carefully because the hair reached above our knees. Needless to say we were very uncomfortable.

"I swear this is one of my least favorite cars so far." Mike said.

"Just imagine going through this twice. Trust me, it's way worse the second time."

"Huh, guess I should consider myself lucky then."

"So which one _is_ your least favorite Mike?"

"It's a tie between the school car, and the fart car."

I laughed a bit at that. "What, how is that a tie? One has a psycho teacher in it that drains your life from you."

"True, but at least I could breath in that car."

We both laughed as we approached the exit. When we left, we stopped to brush off any extra hair that came with us.

"So what car is next?" Asked Mike as we moved to the next door.

"I actually don't remember," I thought about it for a minute. "Hmm… Well I'm sure I'll remember when we see it."

I turned the handle to the car to see a small multi-colored room with a window hole and no roof. Through the window we could see a bigger gray room with a variety of shapes and sculptures inside. Each shape was made of colored cubes. I immediately realized what this car was.

"Mike, this is the first car Tulip ever explored!"

"Wait really?" Mike was both surprised and excited.

"Yeah! Well I mean besides the one she first found herself in."

"Oh, but still after the next car we get to explore cars neither of us have seen."

That part hadn't really hit me yet, my excitement now had a slight nervousness to it.

Mike turned his attention to the room ahead of us. "But what can we do in this car?"

"It's pretty cool, check this out." I knelt down on the grey floor and tapped one of the squares causing it glow with a satisfying note and rise as a red cube.

"Oh cool," He walked up to the window to look at the various sculptures. "So this place lets you make stuff out of blocks?"

"Pretty neat huh?"

"Yeah, but why is this wall here?" Mike asked as he scratched his head.

"Well one-one made it so Tulip could escape from…" I suddenly remembered what could still very well be in this room.

"Mike," I began quietly, "You need to get away from that window."

"What do you mea-" suddenly my fears were reality as the cockroach-like creature Tulip encountered months ago jumped into the hole causing Mike to leap away in surprise.

We were now staring at the creature as it was failing to fit its body through the small opening. It was just as disturbing as I remember.

"What the heck is that thing?" Mike asked still startled.

"I'm not sure, when Tulip was here this creature tried to kill her after following her onto the train."

"Do you know how to beat it?"

"I think Miss M is connected to these things, so maybe we could use water again."

Mike started to riffle through his backpack. "I wish we could but I'm all out of water." He said as he pulled out his empty bucket.

I looked around the car to see if there was something we could use.

"There's nothing here but these cubes." I said worried.

Mike looked down at the floor and pressed a square creating a yellow cube. He then pressed the it again to make a new blue one on top of it. Mike suddenly had an idea.

"What if we trap it?" He suggested.

"What?"

"Using the cubes, what if we trap it in some sort of cube prison. One of us could distract it while the other makes the cage."

I did not like this idea, because I knew that in order to distract it we would have to let it chase one of us. I would've said no, but I couldn't think of another option. If we tried to run past it then there was a good chance the creature would catch one of us before we could close the door.

I stood silent for a moment before deciding, "Alright, but I'll be the one to distract the creature." If we were going to do this then I would be the bait.

"What, no I can-"

"Mike please, I don't want that thing to attack you."

"I don't want it to attack you either. Seriously Heather I can do it."

I put a hand on his shoulder and looked into his eyes. "Mike, I'll be ok."

We stood there for a moment staring into each others pupils before he looked down with a sigh in defeat, he knew he couldn't change my mind.

"Alright, but don't let that thing get you."

"Don't worry I'll be fine."

Later we made our plan to trap the creature. We both created ladders on both sides of the walls and quietly dropped down, me on the left and Mike on the right.

I grabbed my shovel then began to sneak to the end of the wall. As I looked around the corner I saw the creature still trying to get through the window. I soon noticed Mike past it starting to build the cage. The creature then stopped and slowly backed away from the hole. It began to sniff the air before turning to look toward Mike.

Quickly I grabbed a cube sitting by itself and threw it at the creature. Immediately it's attention was now on me. I jumped out of the way as it went to pounce at me. Instead of jumping on me, the creature dove into a wall. It took a moment to steady itself then began to chase me. I ran as fast as I could to avoid it, but it was harder to make my way through the car because it was now filled with random shapes that were presumably made by the creature trying to escape from the train car.

After a moment of running I tripped over a set of cubes and dropped my shovel on the ground. The cockroach creature pinned me down and opened its mouth to suck out my life energy.

But nothing happened. A moment went by of it making an odd noise but I was completely fine. It was just like what happened with Miss M, It couldn't suck out my life force. Soon the creature gave up and raised a claw to attack me. Before it could however the creature was smacked off of me. Mike had picked up my shovel to strike the creature.

The angered creature looked up at it's attacker. Mike turned to me and pointed behind him.

"Heather, finish the cage!"

I looked over to where Mike was building, and the cage was halfway done. I was about to run over but I hesitated and looked back at Mike.

"I'll be ok," said Mike, "just hurry!"

I sprinted toward the cage afraid, not for myself but for my friend. I knew that the faster I worked the sooner we would be safe, so I started building as fast as I could.

Moments later I was finished. I looked behind me to see that the creature was still chasing Mike, and he was getting tired.

"Mike It's done!"

He looked over and suddenly darted for cage with the creature behind him. I stood to the side waiting for the right moment. The creature was inches from Mike when he jumped over the cage causing the creature to slam head first into our trap. Immediately I began to fill the entrance while the creature was still stunned.

The cage was closed, and the cockroach monster was captured.

"We did it." After a moment I was hit with excitement. "Holy cow, we did it!"

Without thinking I ran over and hugged Mike. He was frozen in place while I was realizing what I was doing.

I practically jumped away from him blushing, "S-Sorry Mike, I was excited."

Mike stood there equally embarrassed with a blush of his own. "I… It's fine Heather."

An awkward silence filled the room, and the only thing that could be heard was the frantic cries from the creature. I fake coughed into my sleeve. "Anyway, thanks for the save earlier."

"Don't mention it." We were embarrassed for a few more moments, but we soon decided to head toward the exit.

We entered the next car after recovering from our awkward moment. We were now in a clearing with snow everywhere. The entrance was stuck inside a giant snowman and there were snow covered trees littered throughout the land.

Mike was mesmerized by the sight. "This is amazing."

The car seemed pretty normal compared to the rest of the train. Tulip even confused it with Wisconsin when she was here, so I found it a bit odd that Mike was so amazed by this. "Have you never seen snow before Mike?"

"I have, it's just that I rarely see it."

"What do you mean."

"It never snows back home, so I don't get to see it much."

This felt like a good a time as any to ask about his home. In the past, whenever I asked where he's from he always dodged the question. Maybe it would be different now.

"Where are you from Mike?"

"I'm from some small town in California, but like I said it never snowed there."

"When _did_ you get to see snow?"

"Well during the winter, my mom used to take me to snowy areas before she…" He stopped himself. A look of sadness grew in his eyes. I remembered what Mike said about his home after we escaped the chrome car together. 'There's… nothing for me back there.' I think I finally understood what he meant.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "It's ok Mike, you don't have to continue." He wiped a tear from his eye.

"Thanks Heather."

We then played in the snow for a while. We made snow angels, snowmen, and even got into a snowball fight. Mike seemed to cheer up afterwards, but eventually we decided to leave.

As we left the snow car I started to feel anxious looking at the door ahead of us. Mike definitely noticed.

"Hey, you ok Heather?"

"Uh yeah, I'm good."

"Cmon Heather, what's wrong?"

I sighed. "It's just, I have no clue what's ahead of us now, and I'm afraid of what we might find. I mean what if something tries to kill us again," I looked down feeling sorrow, "we're not gonna be ready for it."

"Then we'll get through it together. Before I got to this train I was alone and I felt like there was no one in the world I could trust. That was until I met you." I looked up at him as he spoke. "After you saved me from that mirrored car I felt like I had someone I could trust, someone I could get through all of this with. I didn't feel... alone anymore. You are the only person that I've felt safe around in a while. You don't need to worry, whatever we face we'll face it side by side." He smiled a bit, "We're in this together."

Hearing him quote me made me smile. "You stole that last bit from me." I said chuckling.

"It worked didn't it?"

"Yes," I looked toward the door ahead. "Yes It did."

Any worries that I might have had left in me disappeared after entering the next car. It was a mountain trail looking across a beautiful landscape with mountains as far as the eye can see. It was a permanent sunset there, so the view was even more breathtaking. The trail had wooden railings to prevent people from falling down. As I was admiring the mountains my mind wandered to what Mike said.

His words spoke to me more than he could've known. During my time reflecting Tulip I always felt trapped, I felt like I would be her prisoner forever. After the day we split up, I thought I would feel free and for that first day I did. Later on though, I started to feel lonely. I hadn't realised it yet but Tulip was a part of me. We grew up together. Even if she hadn't know I was there for most of her life. I was there for all of her ups as well as her downs. We were together since the very beginning. She wasn't my prison, if anything she was my sister… but now she's gone.

That week in the bank car, I felt more alone than ever. Sure the pencil people kept me company but they weren't my friends, not really. Everyone in that car was only there for business, usually when I tried to speak to Drew he always seemed too busy. The only times we ever spoke is when I waited in line, even then he sometimes would just start helping the people behind me as I tried to chat. Not like Mike.

Mike would always listen. He's been so nice to me, and when things got tough he always stuck with me. I know we had only known each other for a few months, but he's been such a good friend to me in that time, that I don't know if I could've gotten this far without him.

"Hey Mike?"

He looked to me. "Hmm?"

"I wanted to thank you."

"Thank me?" He said now confused, "For what?"

"For sticking with me all this time. I know this journey has taken its toll on us, so I'm happy you came with me."

He smiled. "It's my pleasure, in fact I should be the one thanking you for letting me come along in the first place."

At first I wasn't sure about Mike. When I first saw him in the chrome car he only seemed like a scared kid, but after spending time with him I've come see him as a polite, kind, and funny person.

As we spoke I couldn't help but notice how cute he looked in the light of the sunset. I hadn't realised it until recently but I had gained a crush on Mike. Suddenly I felt nervous, I could feel my cheeks burning. There was something I've been wanting to know for I while now.

"By the way, I was wondering, if... you know, if you... maybe…"

I couldn't get it out, he was looking at me with his dreamy bronze colored eyes. I have no idea how people could do this easily. This is one of the most stressful things I've done, and that is a very high bar now. I stood there trying to ask him a simple question while hiding how tense I was, when I noticed the number on Mike's hand was different.

"Mike your hand!" I probably shouldn't have said it so panicked but I think it was understandable considering.

Mike lifted his hand and looked at it surprised, it was now at 580. It must have changed when we were talking between cars because last I checked it was still 746 in the snow car.

"Whoa. I guess we didn't notice it."

"Yeah, guess so." I said kinda relieved to have an out.

Mike spent another moment staring at his number when he spoke up again.

"Anyway, you wanted to ask something Heather?"

"Oh, well I, uh… I forgot." Luckily he didn't notice the silver blush still on my face.

"Uh ok, I guess let me know if you remember."

"I will."

Mike looked confused but he let it go.

'Thank goodness.'


	6. The Cavern Car

Chapter 6: The Cavern Car

"Sooo… what is it that you guys do in this car?" Mike asked confused.

Mike and I were talking to a man who seemed to be made of some type of purple energy standing in a large room covered wall to wall with countless mailboxes. There were so many that there was no visible ceiling, the walls just stretched into infinity. There were hundreds of the energy people working and in the center of the room was a large platinum throne which had a giant man sitting in it who was made of blue energy.

"Well you see," the purple energy man started, "This room is used to answer the many questions of the multiverse." He gestures toward the seemingly infinite number of mailboxes. "Each of these boxes are connected to a planet in the universe. How it works is someone mails a question through the mailbox on their side and we, the postmen, retrieve it for the Knower to answer.

"The Knower?" I asked.

He points to the blue energy man on the throne, "The Knower, as in he who knows all. He reads the questions, then sends back the requested answers." The Knower seemed too deep in his work to notice us. Other postmen were making their way to the Knower from the boxes then going back with new letters in hand.

"Can _we _ask him any questions?" Mike asked intrigued.

"Unfortunately no, the Knower only answers questions that come from the boxes."

I looked around at several mailboxes, most of them were in odd languages so I couldn't read them. Although one of them caught my attention. Most of the boxes were old but they were also in near perfect condition. Except for one. This one had a huge hole in the center that was dented outward, with soot on the surrounding boxes. It looked like something had exploded on the inside. The most interesting part of the box was the label on it.

'Earth.'

"What about that one?"

The energy man we've been speaking to looked at the destroyed box. "Oh, well that used to be connected to a mailbox in a small town in a place you call Oregon… Before the Knower destroyed it.

"Why'd he destroy it?"

"Well you see, about a year ago, someone sent a video of a girl pu-"

"Silence!" The Knower said with a booming voice. He stood from his throne and pointed to the postman. "I have told you all to never again speak of the gummy worm incident. A year later and I still can't stop imagining that disturbing video."

The postman knelt down in fear. "Apologies great Knower, it won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't."

Mike and I decided to leave before we got into trouble for bringing up this, 'gummy worm incident' whatever that was.

"I don't think I wanna know what that was about." Mike said as we walked to the next car.

"Yeah, I mean that video they were talking about must have been really messed up to get a guy who knows everything grossed out."

"Exactly. You know, if the Earth mailbox wasn't blown up I would've probably went up to Oregon to ask the Knower something."

That got me interested, "What would you ask him?"

"I'm not sure, maybe stuff like, whens end of the world, do aliens exist, or maybe if- "

Mike went quiet for a minute. I turned around to see him standing still and staring at the side of the next car.

"Mike?"

"The heck is that?" he said before pointing forward. I looked to the left of the car ahead to see a large deep blue crystal sticking out of the wall. It looked like either the crystal had grown out of the car suddenly or it had been forced through from something inside.

"What the…"

As we approached I noticed that the crystal wasn't the only damaged area to the car. The outside walls had a variety of dents sticking out, each one a different size then the next.

"This kinda reminds me of that car with the turtles, they both seem broken." Mike said slightly nervous.

"This feels different," I said, "That car was weird because the glowing orbs inside were wrong, or at least that's what One-one said after leaving the car."

"Well maybe the orbs in this one are wrong too?"

"I'm not sure, the orbs only seem to affect the inside of the car. The outside of each car we've seen besides this one has been the same."

"Hmm, well I guess there's only one way to know what happened." Mike turned the handle to the door and we were introduced to a sparkling cave tunnel.

The cave was only slightly bigger than the door and was covered with dozens of blue crystals lining the walls and ceiling. Some of the crystals were about as small a coin, while others were as big as a large refrigerator.

As we walked through the tunnel it twisted and turned into curves and straights. We were walking for a few minutes before we found ourselves in a humongous cavern with stone stairs leading downward to what looked like roofless rooms mined out of the stone. Each area had large people mining in them. We looked to the other side of the cave to see the exit door. Seeing no other way forward Mike and I continued down the stairs.

The first thing we noticed upon reaching the bottom was some kind of mess hall. The tables we slabs of stone still connected to the floor but the seats were actual wooden chairs. There was a back room that had opened crates inside. I approached one and was confused.

"That's weird…" I said

"What is?"

"Well I thought this was were these guys eat, but there's nothing in here but silver ore."

Mike walked up to confirm my claim. "Huh, maybe they eat silver or something."

After that incident with the rock lizards, I immediately felt nervous. "Maybe we should leave then."

"What? Why's tha…" By the look on his face, I could tell he got what I meant. "Oh, yeah lets leave."

"Hey, you two," A deep voice came from behind us. "What are you doing back here?"

We turned around to see two men. They were tall and bulky, and had dark blue skin. Both of them were wearing a hardhat with a flashlight on it. They had pointed ears and had under bites with two teeth resting over their upper lips. They reminded me of orcs from those Lord of the Rings movies, but with blue skin.

"Uh." Mike began, "Sorry we were looking for the exi-"

The left orc interrupted him as he pointed at me. "You, what are you made of?"

"I'm uh… I'm human, my skin is just reflective." They both looked confused.

"Re-flect-ive?" Asked the right one.

I started to get nervous, "Uh yeah, you know like a mirror." They still didn't get it. I sighed, "Like metal."

They suddenly looked intrigued. "Like silver?" Said the left one.

"Uh, yeah I guess?"

They both turned around to talk privately. They were talking too quiet for me to understand anything. A few moments of whispering later and the orcs turned to us again.

The right orc cleared his throat, "Would you two be interested in a tour?"

Mike spoke up again. "No thank you," He grabbed my wrist and began guiding me past the orcs. "We were only passing through so-" The two stopped us before we could exit the back room.

"Well... crap." said Mike.

The orcs were dragging us through the cavern until they practically threw us in what looked to be a break room of sorts. The floor was lined with wood planks and there was an extremely worn couch near the back. There was also a large crystal shooting up through the floorboards. The two orcs stood guard outside the room.

I was on the floor ready to scream at the orcs but I calmed down when I noticed Mike offering his hand to help me up. I accepted grateful.

"Thanks Mike."

"No problem." He helped me to my feet then looked around, "How do you suppose we'll get out of here?"

"Not sure, the only exit is being guarded by those two." I spent a moment thinking, "Maybe we can climb over." I walked toward the back of the room and tried to climb over the walls using the couch, but it was no luck. Even with the couch, the walls were almost two stories tall.

I jumped off the couch with a new idea. "Wait, I know!" I said as I pulled out my trusty shovel. "We can _dig _through the walls." I held the shovel high in the air then suddenly slammed the blade into the stone. A loud clang rang through the room before the shovel dissolved into a cloud of dust. "Did Stephen seriously give me a nearly broken shovel!?"

In defeat I plopped down on the couch and placed my face in my hands. My eyes were closed but I could hear Mike as he sat down next to me.

"Heather its alright, we'll find a way out."

"How? The only doorway in here is being guarded, those two might be dumb but they're not just gonna let us walk out. I appreciate you trying to cheer me up Mike but I just wanna sit here for a minute."

He was silent for a moment before he let out a sigh, "Ok." He gave me a pat on the shoulder before walking off. 'This is so stupid." I thought. 'It's either something doesn't want me to exist, or something just wants to eat me. Honestly, why can't I just live happy traveling with Mike. Oh god what are these guys gonna do to him? They obviously eat silver but I have no clue what will happen to him. No I can't think of that now, we need to find a way out but there's nothing the only exit is guarded and…' My thoughts were cut short when I heard Mike.

"Oh…"

I looked up to see him observing the crystal. "What is it?"

"Oh sorry it's just, I guess I'm not used to my reflection being gone." He said as he gestured to the mirror like surface.

'Reflection?' That got me thinking. I stood up and walked over to Mike and the crystal.

"Mike, you just gave me an idea." He watched confused as I placed my hand on the flat side of the crystal. I looked over at the entrance to see the guards not looking, then pushed forward until my arm shot through. Mike was very surprised as I walked through the crystal, 'Guess he forgot.' I was in the mirror world, but something was different. Everything on the mirror side was a shade of blue, even me.

I turned to Mike who was colored normally on the other side. I reached my hand back through the crystal for him to join me. "Cmon, we can sneak away through the mirror world."

"Wait, aren't the reflections of those guards gonna try to stop us."

"Don't worry, reflections can only break away from someone in special areas like the chrome car. That's why I could only talk to Tulip there."

He hesitated for a moment but then he took my hand and I tried to pull him through, except when I did Mike's hand wouldn't pass through the crystal..

"What the?" I kept trying but it wasn't working, something was preventing Mike from entering the mirror world.

"What's going on?" Asked Mike.

"I don't know. I swear I thought this would work. I mean you've been in the mirror world before." It then hit me. "The only times that you and Tulip have been in the mirror world was when you were in the chrome car, I can't take you through normal mirrors."

I looked a the mirror guards then back to Mike. "New plan, I'll go look for a way out for both of us."

"Wait, what if the guards on the prime side see you, what if they get you?"

"Mike I'll be ok. Just wait here, I'll be back."

He looked down for a moment, "Alright, just be careful ok?"

"Promise."

As I walked away from the crystal I noticed that the color looked like how it did in the prime world, my appearance also changed to what I normally look like here. I turned around to see a blue aura surrounding the crystal. It seems like you can see the colors of a reflective surface around them in the mirror world.

I then spent a few minutes walking past guard reflections taking note that a couple of them actually looked at me which made me feel sad. These people were just like me, being forced to live someone else's life. I wish I could have freed them or something, or anything, but there was nothing I could do.

I made my way past various rooms. One was barracks, another was tool repair. One of them even had one of those cockroach creatures caged up. I kept walking until I heard a bell coming from the middle of cavern. Soon after many orcs made their way over so I decided to follow. Out of all of them the ones that were guarding Mike weren't there.

When I reached the center all of the orcs were surrounding a paler orc with a beard who was standing next to one of those strange orbs.

"Where are Grod and Drog?" Asked the bearded orc.

"They said they're guarding a tasty human made of silver."

Hearing that gave me a shiver. 'I'm so glad these guys can't see me.'

"A full human, made of silver? Are you sure they're not just trying to get out of work?"

"We're not sure, they won't let us see it."

"Whatever, are you sure all the silver is gone?"

"Yes, the last of us are done."

"Good, then we can refill it."

'Refill it?' I thought as six of the blue orcs came over holding three large generators and placed them near the orb. The bearded one grabbed wires from each generator and connected them to a long metal spike. He then forcefully shoved the spike into the orb, causing the whole car to shake.

"Now!" The orc commanded. The others turned on the generators making electricity flow directly into the orb. The car shook harder than before, rocks started to fall to the ground and the blue crystals all around turned red. I noticed all around me areas that were only regular stone now had veins of silver grown over them. Shortly after, A giant crystal shot up near the orb straight through the train car's ceiling.

"Stop." The orc ordered.

The others turned off the generators and the bearded orc removed the metal spike and let out a bellowing laugh.

"Everyone we have more to mine now, back to work." The others cheered before leaving to mine. Soon I was alone with the mirror version of the orb. The hole had disappeared but the glow was dimmer.

'Maybe if I take that orb in the prime world,' I thought, 'all of the orcs will come here.'

As I made my way back to Mike with my plan. I noticed in the room with the cockroach creature an orc was teasing it with a stick. I couldn't help but watch until another orc came in looking angry.

"What the hell are you doing!?"

"I'm bored, so I'm playing with-"

"Don't you remember what happened to Urug?"

"No what happened?"

"He was stupid and that thing took his soul."

The first orc quickly looked at the creature then to the angry orc. "Wait really?"

"Yes! These things suck out your soul, so if you don't want to be a soulless husk stay away from it!"

I was getting distracted so I continued to the break room to tell Mike my plan. I could see him through the crystal, he was sitting with his back towards it looking worried.

"Mike I'm back." He jumped a bit at my voice.

"Heather, what just happened the car shook like crazy and the crystal turned red."

"I know and I'll explain later, but I have a plan. I'm gonna make a big distraction then you make a break for the exit. I will meet you there."

"Heather that's a terrible plan, what if you get caught."

"Then they throw me back in here, then I escape through the crystals. Besides it's the only plan we have."

Mike sighed, "Fine, but what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry, when all the orcs start running towards the center you just run." I left before I could hear Mike argue. 'I know he's worried for me but I'm just as worried about him. I really care about him and I'm not just gonna sit around and see what the orcs plan to do with him.'

I made it back to the center and was staring at the orb. Luckily there was a large crystal near so I could get to it quickly. There were no orcs in sight, this was my best chance.

I took a deep breath and walked through the crystal. Upon entering the prime world I dashed to the orb and ripped it from its socket. Almost immediately the cave was filled with angry yells, it almost sounded like roaring. I waited for a moment before the bearded orc from earlier stormed into view. I started running away from the exit after making sure I had been seen.

"A silver human is stealing the orb!"

As I ran almost every orc in the car was chasing me, I could only hope that the two that were guarding the break room were too. Within moments the orcs were catching up to me, I knew I couldn't outrun them, I just needed to keep their attention. They were about a couple feet away when I saw a crystal directly ahead of me and I got an idea. I unzipped my hoodie and placed the orb inside, I then dove through the crystal. I got up to see the orcs were pounding on the crystal trying to get me while their reflections were mimicking them from my side.

The orb was still in my hoodie, but as I pulled it out it flew out of my hands and slammed into the crystal. It didn't go through but it was just stuck to the side. It must be like reflections in the prime world, Things from the prime world must need a mirror from this side to move around here. The orcs suddenly lost interest in me and tried to claw for the orb with no luck, they have no way to enter the mirror world.

Soon my senses came back to me and I ran to the exit. Any orcs that weren't already at the crystal were running to see what had happened. I noticed that two of them were the ones that threw me and Mike in the break room. it was a good sign but I was still worried because I wouldn't know if Mike was safe until I got back to the prime world.

I had made it to the stairs and began to look for a crystal. I then heard a familiar voice.

"Heather, over here!" I turned to see Mike talking to me through a crystal.

"Mike, thank god you're alright."

"I was gonna say the same thing." He laughed.

I walked through smiling. "Come on, we should get out of here."

We left the car together when Mike spoke up again, "Those miners were going crazy, what the heck did you do?"

"I guess I cut off their silver supply."

"Man that is cold, I guess they deserve it though."

I nodded in response.

"I mean I heard those guards talking after you left and they did want to eat you. You'd have to be soulless to want to eat a great person like you."

Normally a compliment like that would make me feel flustered, but one of the words made me think. 'Soulless,' I thought back to those two orcs with the cockroach creature. 'Those things suck out your soul but they couldn't do it to me. Does that mean… I don't have a…'

"Heather, you ok?"

It was then I realized that I had stopped walking.

"Oh yeah, sorry Mike I guess I just spaced out."

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, I'm ok, really."

Mike clearly didn't buy it but he didn't pry.

We were safe from the silver eating orcs but now my mind kept returning to the same thing that made me question my existence.

'Do I have a soul?'


	7. The Virtual Car

Chapter 7: The Virtual Car

I was just waking up to a loud beeping next to me, I could feel the soft mattress on my back and the fluffy blankets wrapped around me. I didn't want to leave but my alarm clock was commanding me to get ready for the day.

'Just five more minutes.' I thought as I pushed the button on top of my clock, 'It's been forever since I've gotten to sleep in my bed… My bed…' My eyes shot open upon realizing that I was sleeping in my actual bed instead of somewhere on the train.

"Wait what!?" I shot up from the covers and observed my surroundings. It dark but there was no mistaking it, I was sitting in my room, it had two beds in the corners, there was a black desk with a laptop sitting on it and two dressers next to each other.

'What's going on, how am I home? The last thing I remember was me and Heather were coming out of that weird dimension car then…' I tried to remember but that was the only thing that was coming back. 'That whole thing couldn't have been a dream could it, I mean it felt so real. How could-'

"Mike?" Said a voice coming from the door in the front of the room. A boy a year younger than me with short blond hair and glasses flipped on the light switch. "You ok man?" It was my cousin Chris. Before the train I lived with my aunt and uncle, and they had me share a room with their son.

"Chris? What… how are… what's going on?" To say the least I was extremely confused.

"Well I came to grab my phone, then I heard you yell. Are you ok."

"Uh yeah, I'm good."

He walked over to his bed and sat down to talk. "You sure, did you have a nightmare or something?" He looked genuinely worried.

Something was off here, Chris never seemed this concerned with my well being before. Usually he'd just tell my aunt Lori if something was happening or just joke about it.

"I'm fine."

It took a moment, but Chris got up, picked up his phone and started to walk out, "Alright but you should probably hurry if you want to get to school on time." Before he left he said one more thing, "Also your mom wanted me to tell you she made waffles."

I was stuck with pure shock. 'Mom?' Chris left before I could ask him anything else. 'That's impossible, she's gone.' Hearing that my mom might actually be here and only a few feet away got me out of bed faster than any alarm clock could.

I walked to the door wearing my usual sleep wear, a white t-shirt and a pair of black plaid sweatpants. Before I went through I took a deep breath, then turned the handle.

I was standing in a hallway extending out from the living room that had three doors. One to my room, one to my aunt and uncle's room, and one to the bathroom. I slowly walked into the living room. To the left of it was an open kitchen with the only thing dividing the two rooms being a counter.

Then I saw her. she had her back to me making breakfast but I was almost certain it was who I thought it was. Her long brown curly hair was unmistakable.

"Mom is th-" Suddenly I felt an extreme pain in my head, it was so bad I fell to my knees. It was the most intense headache I've ever had. I could hear my mom call my name as she ran up to me but I was starting to black out.

Soon I was back in my bed with an ice pack resting above my face. I sat up and put the ice pack on my dresser which I noticed had a note on it. It was in my mom's handwriting.

However no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't read it. The letters were there, I just couldn't form them into words. I flipped the paper over because I was starting to get another headache just trying to read it.

'What is going on…'

A few minutes pass and I hear a knock at the door.

"Uh, come in?"

The door opened and to my surprise, a chrome girl with a purple hoodie walked in.

"Heather? What are you doing here?" I was happy to see a friend but I was still very, very confused.

"I know I should be at school right now, but after your mom told me what happened, I just had to check on you."

"Wait a sec, _how_ are you here, what about the train?"

She gave me a weird look, "What train?" Something was definitely wrong, I suddenly had I thought. I turned over my right hand to check my palm. 592. My number was still there. It went up a bit, but still it was there.

'I'm still on the train. This has to be some kind of dream.' There were a number of reasons why I thought this. First my mom was there which was an immediate red flag. Then the note, I heard from somewhere that you can't actually read in a dream. Finally Heather and my number, I have never seen them once before the train so seeing them here made no sense.

'So if this is a dream, then what about Heather? Is she stuck here with some kind of weird amnesia or something, or is she just part of the dream?'

"Uh Heather why did you come to check on me?"

She laughed a little, "I mean I would be a terrible girlfriend if I didn't."

"Girl...friend?" My cheeks immediately lit up. Out of all the things she might have said, that was the last thing I was expecting.

"Yeah your girlfriend, you know the person you asked out at the train station a few months ago, remember?"

"Uh, Yeah…" I decided to play along for the time being.

"Anyway I need to go to school, feel better soon."

Heather then wrapped her arms around me giving me a tight hug. I was not prepared for what happened next, she backed away slightly for a moment then suddenly leaned forward and pulled me into a kiss.

'Definitely not her.'

My mind exploded, and my whole face was now a deep red. This time when I blacked out, it was from complete shock.

* * *

Heather and I were in a car that was clearly modeled after a museum. There were white pillars against the walls and in between each were frames for paintings. These frames however contained very realistic scenes that moved. According to a receptionist near the front, This place was called the Multiverse Museum. Each painting showed an alternate universe of the train, all just as likely to have happened as the others.

Most of the different universes I saw had a girl with a green hoodie, glasses, and long orange hair, who Heather had informed me was Tulip. There were so many universes to see, there was one where Tulip was traveling with _my_ reflection, one where everyone's genders are swapped, even one where we looked like we just came out of a post nuclear wasteland.

There were also universes with people neither of us have seen before. One had an old man with a lab coat traveling with a boy wearing a yellow shirt, another had a boy with spiky brown hair and a black and red jacket.

One of them actually had Tulip singing with a young man with brown hair wearing a jean jacket and black pants in the crystal car. They were in a group hug with a little girl and soon were joined by who I can assume were Atticus and One-one. I actually recognized the song they were singing. I heard it many times at the end of a show my cousin likes to watch, I can't remember the name of it though, it was like, something Universe. After the song ended Tulip and the boy both blushed. With the song they were singing and how awkward they acted towards each other afterwards, I couldn't help thinking, 'They so like each other.'

While I was looking at the seemingly infinite number of universes I couldn't help but notice that Heather was only following behind me staying silent, she's been doing that pretty often since the car with the orcs. I've tried asking her but she keeps saying she's fine which I know isn't true.

"Heather?"

She looked up at me, "Yeah?"

"What's wrong, you clearly have something on your mind."

"I told you, I'm ok."

"No you're not, Heather please I only wanna help you."

She lowered her head, "Even if I don't really exist?"

I was taken aback. "What?"

"Would you want to help me if I didn't have a heart, if I was just a knockoff Tulip with no soul? A reflection's only purpose is to mimic someone else, why would a copy of someone have their own soul?" I could hear the sadness in her words. She was starting to tear up.

"Heather…" I reached out a hand but she turned away.

"Let's just go." She quickly dried her eyes and continued ahead of me.

As we exited I couldn't get Heather's words out of my head, she is a person, she has a soul, and right now she meant everything to me. I was about to try and cheer her up when we heard a woman's voice.

"Well well, and here I thought we would never cross paths again kitten."

We turned and saw a white cat wearing a small suit jacket sitting in front of a weird orb contraption. Heather was suddenly furious.

"You! What are you doing here?"

"Why I'm stranded here, when you and the white ball tampered with my shuttlecraft, you also managed to damage the power core. What about yourself, after I helped you I thought you would have gotten off the train by now."

"I'm not Tulip!"

The cat took another look at Heather, "Hmm, it would seem not, then what pray tell are you. A clone perhaps?" She did not like that at all.

"I'm not a clone! I'm- I _was_ her reflection!"

"My my such hostility,"

"Well I don't trust you, you tried to trap Tulip in her own memories."

"That may be, however I also assisted her in getting to the engine free of charge."

"Yeah right, cmon Mike lets get away from this con artist," Heather grabbed my wrist and started to walk to the next car.

"Now hold on kitten," The cat stood in our path , "The car ahead is dangerous, not even I would venture inside."

"Good cause we are." Heather just walked us right past her. I wasn't sure about this cat but she didn't seem like she was lying.

"Heather, what if she's telling the truth?"

"Trust me Mike, she's not." I looked back as we walked to see the cat watching us as Heather began to open the door.

'I've got a bad feeling about this.'

* * *

I woke up for the third time. Heather was gone, and I was left alone with my thoughts. 'Ok so I'm home, my mom is here, Heather's also here and we're dating? Now I'm sure this is some crazy dream, we're not like that. I mean I do think she's very pretty, but we don't feel that way for each other... I think.'

I got dressed in my usual black turtleneck and jeans, and decided to go to school. Maybe I could figure out what was happening there.

The rest of the day felt strange, like everything good that could happen today, happened. No one cared that I was late, I aced all of my assignments, my usual bullies were expelled, and the school hired professional chefs for the cafeteria. With all of this plus Heather giving me affection the whole time made it very hard to concentrate on my situation.

It was the end of the school day, Heather and I were now standing in front of my house. She was holding my hand.

"Uh, I'll see you later Heather."

"Hmm? Oh yeah," She hesitantly let go and slowly started walking down the sidewalk. "See you."

I went to walk to my front door until I heard someone running towards me, I turned around and was almost tacked to the ground with a hug.

"Almost forgot," Said Heather, she kissed me again then ran away, "Love you."

I wasn't as shocked as the first time but I was still stunned for a few minutes. "You too…" I finally said weakly.

When I entered my house I was greeted by my aunt, uncle, cousin, mom, and Heather screaming, "Surprise!"

"Wha- What is this?"

My mom with a cake stepped forward. "Well seeing how you've been doing so good in your classes we decided to throw you a little party."

Seeing everyone there, including the two closest people in my life throwing me a party… got me angry.

'This is all fake.'

I stormed off into my room then slammed the door shut. I then threw myself onto my bed, but soon after my mom walked in with everyone behind her.

"Mike sweetie, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" I said sitting up, "None of this is real!"

Everyone grew a shocked confused look, "What do you mean Mike?" asked my uncle Pete, "Of course this is real."

"No it's not! You have never been nice to me, not once since I started living here. Chris your a sarcastic jerk, Heather we're not together, I don't even think we feel that way for each other. Aunt Lori, you… well you're pretty much the same, but mom..." As I spoke, each person I pointed out disappeared. Soon my room does the same leaving me and my mother standing in an empty void.

"You... you're not here. I would love for you to be here but I know it can't happen." I lowered my head and felt my eyes start to water. "Ever since the accident, I've been wishing that it was only a bad dream, that you weren't really gone." Mom walked forward as I started to cry. "I want you back but… I have to accept that you can't." Mom stood directly in front of me, then put her arms around me. I began to sob into her shirt.

"Mike, I'm so sorry that I couldn't stay with you, but I want you to know that I am proud of the person your becoming, and that I will love you always."

I tried to calm down the best I could but tears were still flowing down my cheeks, this actually sounded like something mom would've said. "I love you too mom." A bright light engulfed my vision and soon all I could see was white.

Suddenly I gasped awake, there was a weird helmet on my head with little screens in front of my eyes. It reminded me of a VR headset. I took it off to see I was in a pure white room sitting on a throne that looked like it was made from computers. I then noticed the cat from earlier was sitting to the right of me.

"Well, you seem very strong willed kitten."

I suddenly remembered what happened. "You?" I said as I got up from the weird metallic throne I was sitting in. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you this car was dangerous, and you didn't listen, so now I'm here to help."

"What the heck was that dream I was in?"

"Ah, you see this car was built by the original conductor to create prototypes of the memory tapes I'm sure your reflective friend has told you about. What this version does is it traps the user in what they would perceive as a 'perfect world' using their deepest desires."

'That doesn't make sense,' I thought, 'Well I mean my mom was there and my family was kind to me, but I don't have feelings for… Oh…' I felt my cheeks redden.

"Wait a second, where is Heather?"

"If you are referring to the reflection girl, she's here, but if we are to save her you need to retrieve something for me."

"Uh ok, what is it?"

"This whole car is monitored by an AI. It used to only work on the prototype but now it traps passengers here to use their brains as processors. You need to get its power core in the main room."

"Won't there be anything guarding it?"

The cat snickered, "The AI believes no one can escape their dreams so it does not bother with guards. It may be intelligent, but it makes terrible choices."

The next few minutes were a blur, I couldn't stop thinking of what the cat implied.

'She said that the dream creates a world based on your deepest wishes, but that would mean that I have feelings for Heather. Now that I think about it... I might. Whenever I'm around her I do feel happy and safe. Plus when dream Heather kissed me I noticed that I never pulled away. Each time felt amazing, though since it was a dream I doubt that the real thing would feel that good… but I wonder…'

I shook my head. Now wasn't the time to be fantasizing. I needed to get Heather out of this place.

With my senses back I noticed that I was in a white paneled hallway holding a Mechanical orb with occasional red flashing lights. I was standing in front of a door with a name labeled at the top.

'Heather Olson.' There were many rooms for other people, but Heather's and my own were the only ones that was labeled. I guess we were the only ones there.

I walked inside and saw Heather sitting in one of the machines I was in. The cat already there waiting for me.

"Did you bring what I requested?"

I held up the orb.

"Excellent, put that on the ground, then we can begin." I did as she said and she went to the back of the machine. She used her claws to cut some wires behind the throne, then suddenly Heather let out a pained yell, she was still in her dream.

Seeing Heather hurt got me mad. "What did you do!?"

"Calm yourself kitten, I merely disconnected the power to the device. Turning off the machine while someone is still in a dream only gives them a painful headache."

I guess that explains the headache I had in my dream.

"Well what do we do now?" I said starting to calm down.

The cat walked to the power core and began to roll it towards the door, "Now _you_ must wait for her to awaken. She should be out in just a moment."

I was confused, "What do you mean?"

"With the device now disconnected, your friend will have no doubt noticed that she is in a dream. Then she must break out of the illusion like you did."

"Wait a second, what was the core for then?"

"Payment, you didn't think I would help you for free did you? I needed a new power source for my shuttlecraft and you needed to free your friend. Besides, with it's power gone the AI will not be able trap future passengers."

I was starting to see why Heather disliked this cat. She was almost out the door when she turned around.

"I will tell you something for free, the reflective one may not want to leave her paradise. She has to be strong enough to wish to leave."

With her warning the cat continued out the door with the orb. "Au revoir."

It was now me and Heather in the room, I took the weird helmet off of her head. Moments pass and Heather was still asleep. Soon moments turned into minutes, then minutes turned turned into an hour. She was still in the dream I couldn't take it anymore, the fear of losing Heather was the only thing I could think of.

"Heather, please you have to wake up." I was holding her hand as I spoke. "I can't do this without you. I know you feel like you don't really exist but I know you do. You are a caring person with feelings and emotions, you can't have those things without a soul. You have done so much for me that I refuse to leave here without you." I started to feel nervous, deep down there was something I've wanted to say to her for a while but I didn't quite realize it until now.

"Heather, I… I lo-"

Suddenly Heather gasped out of her sleep completely startling me. I quickly let go of her hand. She looked around at her surroundings before noticing me sitting next to her.

"Mike?" She said wearily, "What's going on, where are we?"

* * *

We left the car after I explained what happened to Heather.

"So the cat only helped us just to get a power source?" Said Heather. "Figures."

"Yeah but she did help us."

"I guess, I still don't trust her though."

"That's fair, she doesn't really strike me as the selfless type."

"By the way Mike I wanted to thank you for getting me out of the dream."

"I didn't really do much, I just sat next to you and waited."

She shook her head, "No Mike, After I figured out it was a dream I found myself sitting in an empty void. In that void I felt like should've stayed there feeling sorry for myself. That was until I heard your voice telling me I am someone with a soul and that you wouldn't leave me. I felt better after that then I woke up."

"Uh… what was the last thing you heard me say in the dream?" I was worried Heather heard what I was trying to say before she woke up.

"You said you refuse to leave without me." She said with a smile.

'Oh thank god.' I thought. 'That would've been super embarrassing.'

Being relieved she didn't hear my near confession however I couldn't help but wonder what Heather saw in her dream. I told her about mine while choosing to keep certain details involving her out.

"Hey Heather, what was your dream like?"

She stopped walking and gave me a thoughtful look, "Well, I was in Wisconsin with Tulip and her parents, they treated me as Tulips twin sister which in a sense I suppose is true." She looked a little nervous. "Also you were there."

"Oh?" After experiencing Heather in my dream, I was very curious of what happened in hers. "What was I like?"

Heather looked down and rubbed the back of her neck. "Well you were uh…" Her eyes widened noticing something. She looked shocked.

"Mike, your number…" That was all she could manage to say.

I raised my right hand to see the new number. 147.

I was blown away. Each time my number went down it was only ever around a hundred, but this time it went down over four hundred.

Seeing my number getting more and more close to zero got me worried. Both me and Heather had no idea what could happen when it runs out. It's always been in the back of my mind but now it was stressing me out.

I think Heather noticed because she grabbed my right hand with both of hers.

"I'm sure it'll be ok Mike, cause we'll both be here for each other."

I looked at her for a moment then smiled. She was right, throughout this whole adventure, we've gotten through it together. I was still worried about what the future might hold but I felt better knowing that I'd face it with her.

We continued down the train hopeful, and hand in hand.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**I'd like to let you all know that the universe that Mike saw that had Tulip singing duet with a boy with a jean jacket in the crystal car was a reference (with permission) to another story called **_**Infinity Train: Bryce's Story**_** written by ****OmegusXIII****. If you haven't read it yet, you should go check it out. It's Tulip's story with the addition of new characters, new cars, and new struggles.**


	8. The Carnival Car

Chapter 8: The Carnival Car

With the orange sky and the unmoving setting sun shining in the distance, Mike and I were walking on a dirt path to the exit. It was morning and we were in a car that was a flat landscape covered with patchy dry grass, hills, and the occasional cactus. The car had a western feel to it so we just called it the Wild West Car. We had just left a town after waking up in the inn we stayed at.

"I swear," Mike said, "If they didn't have a clock in that inn, I would have no clue what time it is."

"I know right, all the cars only seem to be at a set time. Why can't they have both day _and _night?"

"Who knows, maybe the next one will have that special feature."

"That should be a _normal_ feature, I don't see how anyone can sleep when it's day all the time."

As we left the car and opened the door to the next we were introduced to an open plot of land filled with carnival rides and large colorful tents. The event was as big as a town and had hundreds of other patrons. It was night but the whole car was illuminated by rides and booths on the sides of the paths.

Our eyes lit up in amazement.

"Whoa," I said. "This is the biggest carnival I've ever seen… Actually It's the first carnival I've seen." I placed a hand on the back of my neck laughing awkwardly to myself.

"Oh, you're gonna love it." Mike said cheerfully," My mom brought me to one when I was ten and it was the most fun I had in awhile."

I smiled, "What should we do first then?"

We bought two paper armbands that let us go on all the rides for a full day and started our fun with a giant slide. When we got to the top an employee gave us two blankets to slide down with, Mike and I decided to see who could reach the bottom first. Mike beat me by a hair.

We went to many of the activities there. We went to a haunted house ride, bumper cars, we even tried playing some of the games. I think they're all rigged cause the only thing we could win at was balloon darts, and we only got a tiny blue teddy bear to show for it. We put it in Mike's backpack.

There was a point where I felt extremely awkward because we were walking by a tunnel of love, but then that got me thinking.

'Maybe I should tell Mike how I feel, but I can't just blurt it out. It needs to be somewhere meaningful. The tunnel of love would be way too obvious, so where could I-' I then noticed a ferris wheel near the back of the car.

'That's perfect, before we leave I'll tell him up there.'

For the rest of the day I was feeling both excitement and nervousness. A few hours later and we were walking towards a large red circus tent in the middle of the carnival. As we approached the tent we noticed a man in a red tailcoat and tophat putting up a small sign labeled 'closed until further notice.'

"Uh, hello?" Mike said getting the man's attention.

"Huh? Oh sorry you two, circus is closed."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Well some assh-" He looked at us, "Jerk decided to steal from the earnings this whole week, so I'm closing today to find who's been doing it."

Mike and I looked at each other.

"Maybe we can help?"

He gave us a weird look, "You two want to help?"

We nodded.

"Alright sure, I guess three heads are better than one. What are your names by the way?"

"My name is Heather."

"I'm Mike."

"Ok Heather and Mike, you can can me the Ringmaster."

Mike and I looked at each other confused.

"Uh ok." I said.

After that we helped the ringmaster interrogate his employees, but there was no luck. None of them confessed to the crime and the ringmaster went through their things only to find nothing. I think it was in the afternoon but it was hard to tell with the moon staying in the same spot all day.

The ringmaster was now guiding us away from the tent.

"So where are we going?" Asked Mike.

"We've talked to everyone except one person, the clown. He didn't come into work today so we're going to his trailer."

"Do you think it was him?"

"Not sure. He's always complained about his job but a lot of people do that. We're gonna find out in a minute."

We had made it to the trailer and the ringmaster went to pull something out of his pocket but quickly realised something was wrong.

"Damnit." He said as he checked his pockets.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I forgot my keys," He sighed, "Looks like we're doing this the old fashioned way."

He then pulled out a type of lock pick and began to work on unlocking the door. A minute goes then the door is open. Mike's eyes lit up.

"Whoa, how did you do that?"

The ringmaster looked at Mike, "Well I used this to put the inner mechanisms of the lock in the correct positions."

"That's really cool, wish I could do something like that."

The ringmaster then looked to his lock pick thoughtfully then smiled, "Tell you what," He gave the lock pick to Mike. "You can have this."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't worry I have more."

Mike smiled at his gift, "Thanks."

"Don't mention it, now let's get back to business."

We entered the trailer and saw a small living quarters with a kitchen area, a table with chairs, a TV, and a couch that folds out into a bed. The floor was scattered with empty bottles.

"Well he's not here let's look around."

"Are we aloud to do this?" asked Mike.

"I'm his boss, and since I'm suspecting him of stealing from the circus I say it's ok."

A few minutes of us searching the room go by until I noticed something tucked behind the couch. It was a burlap sack with the word 'potatoes' stitched on it.

I opened it up only not to see potatoes, but instead it was filled with dozens of stacks of bills.

"I found it."

The ringmaster walked up next to me with a curious look quickly turn into an angry one.

"That son of a… The next time I see that clown he's dead meat."

Suddenly we heard something shattering on the ground. We turned to see a clown frozen with fear. He had dropped a full bottle, dark liquid began to stain the floor.

We stood there for a moment just staring, the clown was looking between the bag of money and his boss. He then turned around and sprinted out the door.

"Oh no you don't!" Exclaimed the ringmaster as he chased after him, we followed behind him.

The clown was faster than he looked, he ran past many people even knocking a few over. He went between rides and booths trying to lose us but we stayed on his trail.

Eventually he ran into a house of mirrors and Mike turned to me, "You two keep chasing him, I'll go through the exit and cut him off."

I nodded and we went inside. It was built like a maze, we saw the clown a couple of times through the mirrors. I think these are easier to get through when you have a reflection, cause I kept bumping into mirrors thinking it was a way forward. I ended up just following the ringmaster.

After a while of traversing, we caught up to the clown. The ringmaster tackled him to the ground and held his arms behind his back.

"How dare you steal from me, I gave you a job I gave you a home."

The clown tried to apologize and say he'd never do it again, but the ringmaster interrupted him.

"Save your excuses, I've given you too many chances already."

"What are you gonna do with him?" I asked.

"I'm going to throw his ass in the western car up ahead."

'Huh, maybe he could be a rodeo clown.' I thought.

"Anyway, thanks for the help, I owe you one. Now come on clown."

He left the house of mirrors with the clown, and I decided to wait for Mike. After a while though I started to get nervous, I thought I'd see him by now.

'I guess he's having trouble with the maze. Suppose it wouldn't hurt to walk to the end.'

I slowly continued through the mirrors trying not to smack face first into one, when I heard Mike's voice. I couldn't hear what he was saying but I still felt relieved. As I got closer however I heard him say something that got me even more worried than before.

"Let me go you-"

Hearing Mike in trouble made me quicken my pace, I wasn't sure what was happening but I wasn't gonna wait and let it happen.

When I got closer I heard a second voice, "Where is the sliver?"

My heart sank, I could recognize that voice anywhere. It was one of the mirror agents.

Soon I made it to a round open area of mirrors. When I entered I saw the agent with the hat using his arm to hold Mike by the throat with the other agent behind him.

"Not so fast sliver." said the one holding Mike, "There's nowhere to run now."

They both had their white face masks and gloves, except the one holding Mike was missing one. His hand was stretched and connected to the mirror behind him. Mike must have gotten one of his gloves off.

"Before you go running off again, me and my partner have a choice for you,"

I was angry but I had to play along with this, "What choice?"

"Either you surrender or we take the boy."

"What?" The anger turned into dread.

"It's simple really, you can try to run and we take you little boyfriend, or you can come with us now and save us all the trouble. Both choices will end with you in custody, so how about we cut out the middleman."

I thought for a moment, 'What should I do, what should I do?'

I looked at Mike, "If I surrender, what will happen to Mike?" His eyes widened.

"He'd be free to go."

Mike spoke up, "Heather, don't do it." His voice sounded hurt, the officer must have been choking him a bit.

I always hated the idea of getting caught by the flecs but I knew what would happen if didn't cooperate. I raised my arms in the air.

"Alright you win."

"No Heather…"

The agent looked to his partner, "Agent Sieve, cuff the sliver."

The other agent walked behind me and put a pair of handcuffs around my wrists. He then walked me to one of the mirrors and I stepped through.

The agent holding Mike let go and stepped through with us. Mike fell to his knees and started coughing.

The agents grabbed me by both arms and began to escort me out of the maze. I looked behind me to see Mike pounding on the mirror I went through, he was tearing up.

'I'm sorry Mike,' I thought, 'but this was gonna happen sooner or later. I want to stay with you but I couldn't let them take you away. I wish I could tell you how I feel and that these few months I've spent with you have been the best in my life.'

The agents took me to the exit of the car, except it was different. The door was completely silver. When they opened it I saw a flat reflective ground and sky that stretches on forever. The only thing in sight was other silver doors and their van.

One of the agents opened the back of the van and threw me in. I got up and what I saw inside with me got me very confused.

"Stan… and Stan?"


	9. The Mirror Car

Chapter 9: The Mirror Car

It was the middle of the night and I was sitting in my cousin Chris' room. He was on his bed watching something on his phone with earbuds. I couldn't tell what he was watching, but I figured it was the show he likes when he quietly yelled, "She was pink!? Oh my god, that makes so much sense."

I couldn't help but look at him confused. I know I probably would have understood if I watched the show too, but I had no idea what he was talking about.

Besides Chris, the room was quiet, and I had nothing to do but sit at his desk and stare at his closed laptop.

My mom was working late so I had to walk to my aunt and uncle's house after school. Mom said she would pick me up after work. Normally when something like this came up I would just sit and occasionally watch Chris do whatever, but this time my mom was taking a lot longer than normal. My usual two hours of boredom where now four full hours of worry.

"Hey Mike," Chris had stopped watching and was now looking at me, "Dude calm down, your mom is just running late." I guess I wasn't hiding how nervous I was.

I sighed, "I know, it's probably nothing but-"

"But nothing. Aunt Megan will be here soon, so quit worrying." After getting his point across Chris went back to his phone.

'Chris is a jerk sometimes but he's right,' I thought. 'Mom is only late. She probably got caught up in traffic or something. She's gonna be here any minute n-'

My thoughts were cut short when my uncle Pete threw the door open startling both me and Chris.

"Boy's get your shoes on," He sounded worried which was a first for me, "We have to go to the hospital right now."

Chris was annoyed, nothing new there. "What, why?"

Pete looked to me, "Mike, It's your mother, she…"

There was a sudden pit in my stomach, "She what? What happened?" There was a long pause before he answered.

"She got into a car accident."

* * *

There I was on both knees in front of the mirror that Heather was taken through. I had no way to go in myself, and I knew those agents wouldn't let her go again. My forehead was pressed against the reflective surface and tears were streaming down my cheeks.

"Not again. I can't do this again."

Besides my mother, Heather was the only person in my life that I was close to, so seeing her give herself up like that nearly destroyed me.

'It's my fault, if I had just noticed the agent I wouldn't have gotten caught. Except I was caught, and now Heather is gone because of me.'

My mind wouldn't let up. I kept thinking of ways that could've stopped this, ways that ended with us leaving the car together instead of her being taken away.

I looked down feeling completely defeated when I noticed something off to the left of me. It was a white right handed glove. I then remembered, before the agent with the hat grabbed me, I actually forced one of his gloves off. Without it his hand immediately connected to the mirror he came from.

I picked up the glove and stared down at it 'I guess they need these to be in the prime world.' My eyes widened as I realized something. 'Wait, could I use this to get into the mirror world?'

I jumped to my feet and was about to put it on when I noticed that my number had increased.

204.

I looked at it for a moment, then quickly slipped the glove over it..

'No time to worry about that now, I need to get to Heather.'

I approached the mirror I had been kneeling in front of and held out my right hand. As it made contact I noticed that the mirror didn't act like a hard surface anymore. When I pressed into it the mirror stretched like rubber. I would have stopped to think about it but I knew I couldn't waste any time.

I took a few steps forward putting more pressure through my arm onto the mirror. Then my hand shot through.

'It worked.' I thought. Before I continued forward I pulled out the small mirror Heather gave me and stared down at it thinking back on the promise I made her. I didn't care how, I would get her back to the prime world.

After putting the mirror in my pocket I forced the rest of me through and in no time, I was in the mirror world. As I pulled my left foot through I fell forward. I looked behind me to see that my foot was stuck to the mirror.

I was confused for a minute because I thought Heather's small mirror would've let me walk freely, but I guess mirrors from the prime world won't work for me here.

Without a second thought, I lifted my right leg back and drove my heel into the mirror as hard as I could causing it to shatter. Suddenly I was free. When I got up, I looked at the bottom of my shoe, and there was a mirror shard stuck to it. I took the shard and placed it in my backpack.

With nothing holding me back I exited the house of mirrors and looked for Heather and those agents, but I couldn't find them. I was starting to panic when I saw the car's entrance door. Except it was silver now.

'They might have gone through there.'

I ventured forward and opened the door. Inside I saw a huge flat chrome land with nothing in it but more silver doors floating besides each other. It reminded me of the chrome car but with doors instead of random shapes. The doors were lined up like two walls stretching into infinity with the space in between acting as a path.

I was looking into the distance when I noticed something. It looked like a silver van driving away.

'That has to be them.' I was about to follow when I realized that I wouldn't be able to tell which door leads back to the carnival car.

I took the little blue teddy bear we won from my bag, and placed it in front of the door I came from.

'There.' With nothing left, I turned to the direction of the van. 'Hang in there Heather, I'm on my way.'

* * *

I was sitting in the back of the mirror agent's van with two short green men in suits sitting across from me. One of them had a dark green tie on.

"So the agents arrested you and your reflection after me and Mike left?"

"That's right," Said the one in the tie, "Honestly should've known messing with reflection material was a bad idea. Then again they wouldn't have been to my shop in the first place if you hadn't come along."

I was a bit annoyed at that. "Are you saying it's my fault you're stuck here?"

"Now I didn't say that… but yeah, pretty much."

"How was I supposed to know the agents were still after me, heck I didn't even know they could leave the chrome car back then."

"P-please stop yelling." The Stan without a tie spoke up. Unlike prime Stan, his reflection seemed timid and polite.

I sighed and looked out the back window. "What is this place?"

"Jeez, for a reflection you don't know anything about the mirror world do ya? This is how the flecs get around, each door leads to one of the train cars. Think of it as a Mirror Nexus."

'If they could travel to any car then why didn't they try to get me in the bank car.' I thought. 'I guess there weren't a lot of reflective surfaces there, maybe they were waiting for me to leave.'

"Do you know where they're taking us?" I asked.

"I overheard them talking a while ago, and they said they were gonna have to take us to a nearby repurposing prison."

I did not like the sound of that. "Repurposing prison?"

"From what I heard they never got any use. Basically it's a prison for people from the prime world, but for reflections they're used to remake them for the job they were meant for. Reflecting."

Until then, I had been keeping calm throughout this whole thing but now I was filled with dread.

"Oh no…"

* * *

I was walking past the seemingly unending doors feeling more and more tired. I had lost track of the van a while ago but I knew if I kept walking I'd catch up to it eventually which turned out to be true. After a while I started to notice some kind of building up ahead. It looked like a chrome jail.

I was about halfway there when I noticed something else just past the left doors. It was one of those cockroach things. Although this one was different, it was completely chrome. I stepped back expecting it to attack but it never did, it just sat there staring at me behind the space between two doors.

'I guess they can't go on the path.' I continued forward, ignoring the creature looking at me.

After awhile I had made it to the building. It sat on the right side of the path with doors going around it. There was a parking lot with a silver van with the word 'Police' written on the sides. I ran up to it and looked through the window in the back.

'Empty.'

I turned toward the jail, 'They must have taken her inside.'

Upon entering I noticed that no one was guarding the place, there was no receptionist, there weren't even any prisoners. With every empty cell I passed I felt more and more creeped out. Each cell had a toilet, two beds, and a weird satellite dish sticking out of the ceiling. The whole prison was so quiet that the only thing I could hear was my breathing and my footsteps. With each step I got more anxious just waiting for something to happen. Then something _did _happen.

"Mike!?" A voice suddenly came from one of the cells nearly making me fall over in surprise. I turned to see a girl in a purple and green hoodie with orange hair sitting on the floor of a cell.

"Heather!" We both ran up to the bars meeting each other in between.

"Oh my god," We both said in unison, "I was worried I'd never see you again."

We went silent for a moment, we were both blushing. The silence was soon replaced with us laughing.

"Hey maybe you two could finish this later." I calmed down and looked to see two Stans sitting on the bed, one looked annoyed while the other looked kinda shy.

"Uh… Heather, what's Stan doing here… Also why is there two of him?"

"Long story short, the agents arrested him and his reflection after we came along."

"Huh… Well anyway I'm gonna bust you out."

She looked at me confused, "How are you gonna do that?"

I reached into my bag and pulled out the lock pick the ringmaster gave me, "With this."

"... Do you even know how to use that?"

"Can't be that hard," I put the pick in the lock and started to fiddle with it, "As soon as we get out of here we can all go to the carnival car."

"I like that plan." said Stan's reflection, "Then I can go back to reflecting Stan." He then looked at all of us embarrassed, "Oh sorry, did I say that out loud?"

Heather turned to him, "Wait, you _want_ to go back to being Stan's reflection?"

"Well yeah… What else would I do?"

"You could live your own life, you don't have to be someone else just because someone says you have to. You could be your own person."

Mirror Stan looked at her suddenly hopeful, "You really think so?"

"I don't just think so, I know so. Like you I was someone's reflection until I realized that I don't have to just be a copy. I can be anyone I want to be. I am someone with my own feelings and goals just like Tulip, just like Stan, and just like you."

He smiled. It looked like he was about to say something but he was interrupted by the cell door making a click sound. Suddenly the door was open.

A moment goes by until Stan says, "Nice work kid."

"Uh thanks."

"That was awesome Mike," said Heather, "How did you do that."

"I'll be honest, I have no idea."

After that we snuck our way through the prison. I know there was no guards or anything but it still felt weird that no alarm or anything had gone off.

Eventually we were walking on the right side of the path, and I was leading everyone to the carnival door.

"Uh Mike?" asked Heather "Do you know where your taking us?"

"Don't worry, I marked the door with that bear we won."

"Say kid," said Stan, "How far is th-" We were interrupted when the cockroach creature from earlier appeared out of nowhere and started to suck out Heather's life force behind the wall of doors.

Without a second thought, I kicked the creature away causing Heather to collapse. I pulled her to the center of the path. The creature made a screeching noise and sat patiently out of reach. It looked irritated.

I looked down at Heather, her face looked shriveled for a moment but she took a breath then looked back to normal.

"Heather are you ok?"

"Yeah, I'm just feeling a bit tired now."

She tried to get up but when she got to her feet she soon dropped to a knee. Without thinking I helped Heather up and placed one of her arms over my neck. I was helping her walk the same way she helped me in that school car.

"Thanks Mike, I appreciate it." she said as we continued.

"Don't mention it."

She then laughed a little, "Heh, I guess this means I have a soul after all."

I smiled at that. Knowing that Heather believes she is her own person made me feel happy for her. Finally she knows the same thing I had seen since the beginning, she _is _real.

After a long walk we finally made it to the teddy bear. I had told Heather how I got here and showed her the glove on my hand and the mirror shard in my bag. Heather had gained enough strength to walk without my help, while the Stans were exhausted.

I put the bear back into my bag and we entered the carnival car. Soon we were all in the house of mirrors. Stan and I were in the prime world with Mirror Stan and Heather in the other. When we passed through Stan's tie turned silver, and when Heather passed through, her appearance changed back into her normal chrome. I wasn't used to it but I think she looks cute either way.

Mirror Stan was left, he looked cautiously at the mirror before him.

"Don't worry," said Heather as she held a shard up to the mirror, "Just place your hand here and I can pull you out."

"Al-alright, I trust you."

He placed his hand on the shard and Heather pulled him through, his suit and skin turned chrome.

"Whoa, it's a bit warmer here." He said.

She promptly moved the shard to his right arm, "There, so now that you are your own person now, do you have any ideas for a name?" said Heather.

"A name?"

"Yeah a name, you're not Stan anymore so who do _you _want to be?"

"Hmm…" he thought for a moment, "I like the name Ford."

Heather smiled, "Well Ford, it's nice to officially meet you."

We left the house of mirrors and stopped to talk outside.

"So what do guys plan to do now?" I asked.

"Well," started Stan, "We're in a place that regularly scams people out of their money and it just so happens that I'm an expert in just that. I'm gonna set up shop here."

"What about your clothing store?"

"Screw it, I bet I could make loads more money here anyway."

"What about you Ford?" asked Heather.

"I'm… not sure, I've never really done this before."

We stood quiet for a moment till Stan spoke up.

"If you want, I suppose you could work with me."

"Really?" asked Ford excited.

"Yeah, why not. I might need help creating something here… plus it wouldn't right to leave you hanging."

"Wow, Thank you Stan."

"Yeah yeah don't mention it, just don't expect a high paycheck."

We exchanged goodbyes and we headed for the exit. We were at the door when I noticed Heather looking at something in the distance. I turned and it looked like she was staring at the ferris wheel.

"Heather?"

She looked at me snapping out of it. "Huh?"

"You alright?"

"Oh yeah sorry, I guess I spaced out. Cmon let's check out the next car."

"Did you want to go on the ferris wheel?"

She looked back at it for a moment then shook her head. "Nah, I think we've been here for enough time." She took my hand and continued forward. "I'd rather just explore whats next knowing your with me."

I smiled and walked with Heather to the next car.

* * *

I was sitting in our van after leaving the repurposing prison with my partner next to me.

"We done some good work today Sieve," Said Mace who was driving the van. "We are the first officers to ever eliminate a sliver that escaped into the prime world."

He was right, that girl was the only reflection to ever make it to the other side. None have ever made it that close before. Except it didn't happen the way he thinks it did.

When we were sitting in the control room of the facility, Mace told me to hit the button that would repurpose the reflections, turning them into base reflections. Reflections that are assigned to people born in the prime world. Before I could hit the button however, I took a listen into their cell and heard Mirror Tuli… no, Heather talk about reflections being people.

In the end I couldn't do it, she was right. Slivers have as much a right to live as anyone else. Instead I opened their cell and let them go free without Mace noticing.

"Sieve, did you hear me?"

I was lost in thought. "Uh, yes."

He sighed, "Look, I know you don't like taking out slivers, but we have to. It's our job to keep the barrier intact."

"Don't worry Mace. It has to be done and we are the ones to do it."

He grinned at that, "That's good to hear, partner."

I was planning on retiring, but I think I should keep going. There are going to be more slivers on this train so someone needs to help them, and it's definitely not gonna be Mace.


	10. The Truth Car

Chapter 10: The Truth Car

The car we were in was a completely white castle courtyard. The walls, the grass, the trees, everything was white. It felt like a sculpture without paint. That was until me and Mike showed up. The castle was now covered with various splashes of different paints. At first we tried to color it correctly, but after a while we started to screw around.

"Incoming!" yelled Mike as a mass of red paint was hurled toward me. Before the paint could hit me, an invisible force field blocked it from touching me. I looked to see where the paint came from and saw Mike holding a specialized paint bucket.

"Oh you're gonna get it Mike." I threatened in a playful tone.

"I'd like to see you try." As he said this I flung some blue paint at his direction using a paint bucket of my own. He dodged it at the last minute by running behind cover.

"You can run, but you can't hide."

I looked down at my bucket, it had two knobs on the side. One depicting what color, and the other what mode I was using. I turned the second knob past many settings like bucket, small brush, large brush, etc. Until I stopped at paint gun mode. After a moment the bucket morphed into what looked like a super soaker. With my new weapon in hand, I walked slowly through the courtyard looking for my opponent.

"Where are you Mike?" As I walked I listened carefully for any sign of him. "Cmon, you're not scared are you?"

I suddenly heard a noise behind me, I turned around and fired. It was just a now blue rock. I felt disappointed for a moment until I realized I was distracted. From behind me Mike jumped from behind a wall and fired red paint from a paint gun of his own.

I ran behind a big rock, it took most of the paint but Mike managed to get my leg. The force field around it was dripping red. I waited for him to stop shooting then I went to charge him.

I ended up tripping on a brick path next to the rock, causing me to fall face first onto the ground.

"Heather!" Mike ran to my side, "Heather are you…"

I accidentally cut him off by laughing, but after a moment I calmed myself down.

"Sorry Mike, I don't know why I found that so funny."

"Are you ok?"

"Don't worry, thanks to this force field I didn't feel a thing."

"Well I'm glad you're alright."

He helped me up off the ground. When he did, I got a look at his number. 140. Looks like it went down some.

Now on my feet I looked at our messy looking surroundings. "Man we really made a mess of this car."

"I don't know, it's got an abstract vibe to it."

I laughed at that, "Ha, yeah I guess it does. Anyway, we've been here for a while, how about we check out the next car."

"Sure, to be honest this place is starting to get kinda boring."

With that we left the paint car. The paint guns and the force fields first appeared in our hands when we entered, so they disappeared when we left. The same goes for the paint as well. Looking back into the car I saw that everything was white again, like we were never there.

As we entered the next car we saw a living room with a long couch in the center of the room and an old style TV. This room seemed pretty normal except for two things. One, the entire left wall was a black void. And two, the moment we walked in we heard cheering coming from nowhere.

"What the heck?" Said Mike.

On the couch we saw a girl laying down looking annoyed, I walked up to her and tried to talk, "Hey uh, are you alright?"

She didn't answer. "Huh, I guess she can't hear me."

After a moment another girl walked in and spoke to the first. "Hey Kara, how was the date?"

Kara turned over trying to ignore her, but that only made the second girl stand over her, "Lemme guess, Johnny ruined it by accidentally dropping his pants again?" This earned laughing from the disembodied voices.

Kara sighed, "No Jackie, he… he broke up with me."

The voices now sounded distraught, and Jackie sat next to Kara. "What no way, what happened?"

"It was going fine until out of nowhere he told me that he wanted to see other people. I feel so alone now."

"Well that's not true."

Kara looked up at her confused, "What do you mean?"

"You're not alone. Me, mom, dad, even Spencer, We're all here for you." Her words looked like they made Kara cheer up.

"Thanks sis, you always know how to make me feel better." Kara hugged Jackie tightly. The voices found this very sweet.

Throughout this whole bit I had been quietly chuckling to myself. "Oh my god, this car is just a big sitcom, that's hilarious. Mike what do you…" When I looked at him Mike seemed pretty upset himself.

"Mike, what's wrong?"

"Huh?" He snapped out of it, "Oh sorry, I'm ok I just spaced out I guess. How about we go see what's in the next car?" He said putting on a smile. I knew there was something bothering him but when I was about to ask, a guy walked in with an ostrich.

Kara and Jackie both looked at him confused, "Uh…" said Jackie, "What'cha got there?"

The man raised up a drink in his hand, "A smoothie." The voices laughed at this.

"I think she meant the gigantic bird." said Kara.

"Oh, this is Marvin he's an ostrich. I just bought him."

"Your magic meatball told you to?" Asked Jackie sounding unsurprised.

"Yes." The voices laughed again.

We decided to leave before it got weirder.

* * *

It has been a few weeks since the accident, and the doctors couldn't save my mom. A drunk driver crashed into her on her way to pick me up. The driver survived but he got arrested afterwards. I know it was wrong but I wished that he died as well. That bastard took my mother from me, so why did he get to breath. I've been thinking things like that ever since it happened, and everytime I did, I felt like I was crazy for thinking such bad things.

I was sitting outside of my new "home" on the curb. I had just yelled at my aunt which caused her to cry. I didn't mean to hurt her feelings, I was still so upset.

After awhile, Chris came out of the house looking angry.

"Dude what the hell, you made my mom cry!"

I felt guilty the second I stepped outside, and Chris reminding me what just happened made me feel worse. "I'm sorry ok?"

"No not ok, you're acting like a complete jerk."

I was starting to get mad, "Well excuse me, but my mother is dead!"

He sighed, "Look I get it, but-"

I stood up furious, "No you don't 'Get it,' none of you understand how this feels."

"No we don't, so why don't you help us understand? We're just trying to help you." He tried to put a hand on my shoulder but I swatted it away.

"Maybe I don't want your help!" I then shoved Chris down to the ground. He sat there on the sidewalk looking at me in disbelief. He was stunned, and after a moment so was I. I had never got physical with my cousin ever. we argued before, but it never went that far. I backed up a bit then I sprinted towards town behind me.

"Mike wait!" I could hear my cousin's voice behind me but I just kept running.

This was stupid I just wanted to go home, I don't know why but I decided to go back to my mom's old apartment, I guess I was hoping none of this was real. After awhile though, I found myself lost. Mom has driven us from aunt Lori's place and home before but never at night. I wasn't sure where to go until I saw the entrance to the subway, I remembered that there is one close to her apartment building.

I walked down into the subway but something felt off. There was no one down there. Besides me It was completely empty. I was starting to have second thoughts when a train with glowing green windows was suddenly zooming by. The train stopped and a door on the car in front of me opened causing the ominous green glow to disappear.

I looked up and above the door, the destination read the exact street my mom lived on. I didn't exactly trust this, but I didn't know what else to do, so I took a step on the train. The inside was pitch black. Before I could react a weird green portal from inside the train car rushed toward me and engulfed my vision.

* * *

After we left that sitcom car I was reminded of home. The way those sisters were there for each other made me think of what I did to my aunt, my uncle, and my cousin. They just wanted to help me but I pushed them away.

Heather and I found ourselves in a car that was completely transparent. There was nothing in it so I just walked forward until Heather stopped me.

"Mike?"

"Yeah?" I stopped but I didn't turn around.

"I know something is bothering you, so please just tell me. I hate seeing you upset."

I wanted to dodge it, but I couldn't. I knew she just wanted to help.

I sighed, "It's just that I've been thinking of home."

"You mean you're homesick?"

"Kind of, but specifically I was thinking of how poorly I treated my family before I got here."

Heather looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"Well, a couple weeks before I got on the train, my mother... died in a car accident," I hadn't really told her about my mother yet so she looked shocked.

"Mike, I… I'm so sorry."

"After the accident, I had to live with my aunt and uncle. They always tried to help me feel better, but each time they did I only got angry at them. I felt like no one could ever understand, so I couldn't see that they only wanted to help me."

"Mike…" Heather walked up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"I had people that cared about me but I was so upset that I couldn't see it. Back then my mom was the only person that I was close to, and when she died I shut everyone else out."

I turned around and looked at Heather, "After the chrome car I told you that there was nothing for me back home, but… I had a family that cared and I pushed them away because I thought I was alone."

"But I was never alone."

Heather was about to say something but just then my right hand started to glow brighter than it's ever had before. Through the intense light I could see my number shifting until it suddenly stopped.

It was at 0. I didn't have time to process because the second it stopped a flash of blinding green filled my vision. When I opened my eyes again I saw the outline of one of the car doors open, and inside there was now a yellow portal in front of me showing my aunt and uncle's house in the distance.

"Home…" I just stood there for a moment, staring at the portal. I had a way back to my family, a way back home. Although I wasn't sure if I wanted to leave.

'What if they don't want to see me. After what I did I wouldn't blame them if they hated me. And if I go back, then what about-' I realized that Heather wasn't next to me anymore.

I turned around and saw Heather walking to the exit.

* * *

Mike and I were standing, looking at a spiraling yellow portal coming from the storm outside, It looked like it was leading to a street and a small tan house with a grassy yard and a chain link fence. I was confused until Mike made it clear what we were seeing.

"Home…"

I finally understood. The numbers, they're meant to show the progress of people learning a lesson. Everytime Mike's went down, usually we had been talking about his home or either of us not being alone. And with Tulip's, it usually went down when she reflected on her parent's divorce. This train is meant to help people come to terms with the bad things in their lives.

Tulip had to learn to accept a life with her parents separated, and Mike had to see that his mother wasn't the only one there for him. I felt happy for Mike when he realized what he had, and now he had a way back. He can finally return home.

'He can leave the train behind… forever. I… I'm apart of the train so… Mike would have to leave me.' I reached my hand forward about to grab Mike's arm, but I stopped myself.

'Mike belongs back in California, He doesn't belong on the train,' I looked down at the ground, 'He… doesn't belong with me.'

I walked away from Mike and headed for the exit. No matter how much it hurt I knew the truth. Mike needed to go home, and I had to be alone again. I had walked a couple feet when I felt a hand on my wrist. It was Mike, he was stopping me from going forward.

"Heather wait, where are you going?"

I couldn't face him, "You have a way home Mike, please don't make this harder."

"Make what harder?"

"_You_ get to go home, but I belong here, so… this is goodbye."

He was silent. "Look Mike, it's better if you just forget about me ok?" I tried to walk out of his grip, but it only made him hold on tighter. He then said something I did not expect.

"Heather wait… come with me."

My eyes widened and I quickly turned around to meet his gaze. "What? Mike I… I don't think I-"

"Please, I don't want to leave you." He was starting to tear up, "When I arrived on this train, you were the only person I could trust. You were there for me when no one else was. We have been through so much together and through all of it I've come to really care about you,"

His words were melting my heart, I didn't want to stay but this portal was meant for him, not me. I was about to turn away when Mike said something I'd never forget.

"Heather I… I love you.."

Time had felt like it stopped, I stood there while processing three distinct things, shock, disbelief, and happiness. I never thought Mike throughout our adventure would tell me he loves me. For a moment I couldn't believe that he felt the same thing I did, it was too good to be true. After a couple seconds however those previous feelings were replaced with pure joy.

A big dumb smile grew on my face and I could feel my eyes start to water.

"Oh Mike," I threw myself forward wrapping my arms around him giving him a hug, "I love you too!" The tears were falling down my cheeks now, but that didn't stop me from enjoying our warm embrace.

I backed up, loosening the hug slightly to look into his eyes, then I leaned forward and pulled him into a passionate kiss. This was everything I could have dreamed for, I imagined this very thing before but I never thought it would ever happen. I felt like I was in heaven, I've never kissed anyone before but I doubt I would've felt this good.

After a minute or two, we had to separate for air, but soon we were staring dreamily into each others eyes.

"Heather, I don't want to lose you, so if you choose to stay on the train then I'll stay too. Even if it means never going home, I want to be with you. So please, come with me to California."

For the longest time I hoped that Mike liked me the way I liked him, but now that I know he loves me enough to stay here on the train forever made me realize something, I was pretty much brought into existence on this train, but it doesn't define me. Train or no train I would still be me, so in that moment I knew where I really belonged.

"Ok, I'll go with you."

Mike's smile grew bigger when I said that, he grabbed my hand and we walked to the portal. We were right in front of it and I started to feel doubt.

"Mike, what if… what if it doesn't work? What if this portal only lets _you _though and I-"

He put his other hand on my cheek and turned my face so I was looking at him, "This will work, I know it will."

That made me feel better, I gave him a nod then we stepped forward. A bright light filled my vision until the only thing I could see was white.

* * *

My eyes were closed and I was slowly regaining consciousness. I was laying on what felt like concrete. As I started to get up and open my eyes, I noticed that everything was blurry. I rubbed my eyes waiting for them to re-adjust, and when it did, I saw Mike laying face first on a sidewalk.

"Mike!" I rushed to his side and tried to shake him awake, but as I did, I noticed something strange. My hands weren't chrome anymore they were now the same lightish tan I've had in the mirror world.

'What?… how is-'

My attention was immediately back on Mike when he groaned and started to get up too.

"Heather?" He asked before he chuckled lightly, "I guess it work-…" When he looked up at me, he gave me a weird look.

"What is it?"

"Well, you look… here hold on a sec." Mike pulled out his phone and took a picture of me. He then handed it to me to see. I was confused, because on the screen was a girl with orange hair a purple hoodie with chrome trim and dark silver eyes. In the mirror world my pupils were a dark green, but now they were silver.

I was astonished, I looked like how I did in the mirror world except my eyes and hoodie were the same. "I… I look…"

"Pretty?" said Mike with a suddenly smug looking smile.

My cheeks reddened slightly, "Oh my god Mike, shut up." I said with nervous laughter.

He laughed, "Sorry, I couldn't resist." He smiled as we looked to the small house across the street.

"Is that you're home?"

"Yeah, I guess we should go in huh?"

"Maybe I should stay behind, it's _you _that your family is gonna be worried about."

"They'd want to meet you."

"You sure?"

"Don't worry. If they care about me then they're gonna accept you too." Mike's words made me feel a lot better. We approached the front door together and Mike was about to knock when he looked at me.

"You ready?" he asked.

I gave him a smile, I wasn't sure what the future would hold but If it was with him, then I knew it would be ok, "I'm ready for anything."

The End.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**And that is the end of Heather and Mike's journey on the Infinity Train. The reason I wrote this is because I felt that Mirror Tulip deserved her own story after we saw her in the chrome car so I hope you've enjoyed it. Thank you all for reading.**


	11. The Epilogue Car

Chapter 11: The Epilogue Car

It's been a few months since Mike and I left the train and I started my new life with him in California. I now had to chance to lead my own life with so many possibilities to choose from. I was sitting bored in a classroom listening to my new english teacher.

After we both crossed through the portal me and Mike talked with his aunt Lori and his uncle Pete. It turns out that time on the train works differently than here because according to them, Mike was gone for a couple of days instead of a few months. Long story short, with a lot of truth bending, Lori and Pete let me stay with them since I had nowhere else to go.

It was a hassle but with their help, I was enrolled in the same school as Mike. I was kinda hopeful about going to school again, but I soon learned that it's dull everywhere in the world.

I had just finished eating lunch with Mike and two of his friends, and after the bell rang I gave Mike a hug and a kiss on the cheek before I walked to my english class.

It was now fifth period and I was sitting there in one of the middle desks propping up my head with my arm. I was wearing my usual purple and chrome hoodie and jeans but with a simple white tee shirt. Bored out of my mind I stared at the clock on the wall.

'C'mon bell just ring already.' I thought impatiently.

Most of the other students seemed just as bored as me, we all just sat with blank expressions on our faces while the teacher continued the lesson.

I gave up on the clock, and started to look around the room. The walls were painted blue with many posters hanging up, and the floor was lined with grey carpet. There was a white board with today's lesson scribbled on it, the teacher didn't have the greatest handwriting so it made reading whatever he wrote challenging sometimes.

Eventually I just started to stare out the window when I noticed something resting on a tree branch outside. It was a purple-ish blue bird. At first I thought nothing of it until I realised that there something was odd about it.

The bird didn't look feathery, instead it's body looked like many flat surfaces coming together to shape it. It was then that I understood what I was looking at. The bird was completely made of crystal, and I've only seen crystal birds in one other place.

I was stunned, concerned, and most importantly, very confused.

'What in the world?' I thought, 'How can that be here, I thought only things that come through the portals come here. How is this-'

"Heather, you still with us?" I looked over and saw the teacher as well as most of the other students looking directly at me.

"Uh, yes sorry."

"Ok good, please try to avoid daydreaming from now on ok?"

"Right."

Everyone's attention was back on the teacher as he resumed talking about today's assignment. I looked towards the window once again only to see that the bird was gone.

* * *

**Author's Notes**

**With the end of one story another will begin. This marks the beginning of a new adventure for Mike and Heather called Infinity Train: _The Sliver Paradox_. It is available to read now so if you wish to see what's in store, go check it out.**


End file.
